Melinda French Gates has a message for the ultrawealthy: Give more money away.
In a Tuesday interview with Wired, Gates spoke about the Giving Pledge, a movement she started in 2010 with her ex-husband, Microsoft’s cofounder Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett, the chair of Berkshire Hathaway.
French Gates said that some of the people who signed the Giving Pledge, which encourages billionaires to donate a significant portion of their wealth, have been giving money at a “massive scale.”
“But have they given enough? No,” she said.
She said those who have amassed “enormous amounts of wealth” have benefited from the US’s education system, regulatory environment, and venture capital system. French Gates is worth $17.2 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“If you live in this country and started a business, you benefited from this country,” French Gates said. “And I believe to whom much is given, much is expected, and they should be giving back more, far more than they are.”
She did not name specific billionaires in the interview.
The Giving Pledge’s website says that 250 individuals from 30 countries have taken the pledge. Its signatories include Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle’s technology chief Larry Ellison, and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman.
The website spotlights billionaires’ contributions to various charities, such as philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s $70 million donation to the UNCF in September.
French Gates cofounded and cochaired The Gates Foundation with Bill Gates before leaving in June 2024. She now runs Pivotal Ventures, a group of philanthropic organizations focusing on women’s issues.
French Gates’ comments in the Wired interview echo those of singer Billie Eilish during her acceptance speech at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards in October. The guest list at the awards included billionaires like Zuckerberg and filmmaker George Lucas.
“Love you all, but there’s a few people in here that have a lot more money than me,” Eilish said. “If you are a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties.”
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