New details have surfaced about how Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates structured their finances and charitable efforts after their high-profile divorce.
According to The New York Times, Bill donated $7.88 billion in 2024 to Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, a philanthropy organization Melinda launched in 2022. The report, based on newly available tax records, describes the gift as part of the settlement arrangement tied to their divorce and to Melinda’s departure from the philanthropic foundation they previously led together.
The donation is considered among the largest charitable contributions ever publicly disclosed. A spokesperson for Pivotal said the gift was part of an agreement the former couple reached when Melinda stepped away from the foundation to focus on her own charitable priorities.
The spokesperson added that the transfer was included in the $12.5 billion Melinda was set to receive to support work benefiting women and families. It’s unclear when the remaining portion was paid—likely in 2025 or 2026—but the spokesperson said the commitment has been fully completed.
Bill and Melinda announced their decision to divorce in May 2021, ending nearly three decades of marriage. During that time, they co-founded a major global philanthropic organization and raised three children.
In May 2024, Melinda publicly announced she was leaving the foundation.
“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” she said in a statement at the time. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.”
She added: “I care deeply about the foundation team, our partners around the world, and everyone who is touched by its work.”
Melinda also said she would pursue her own philanthropic efforts with the $12.5 billion commitment.
“This is a critical moment for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world-and those fighting to protect and advance equality are in urgent need of support,” she said.
In her memoir, The Next Day, released in April, Melinda wrote that leaving the foundation became one of the defining moments of her life.
“I am simply not willing to accept the idea that my granddaughters could grow up with less freedom than I had,” she wrote. “And I knew that by leaving the foundation, I would have more time and resources to devote to this fight–as well as, for the first time in my philanthropic career, full control over how those resources were used.”
She also said in an April cover interview that she felt it was “only responsible” to put her enormous wealth toward helping others.
“I believe the only responsible thing to do with these resources is to give it away — as thoughtfully and impactfully as possible,” she said. “One of my core values has always been to whom much is given, much is expected.”
