Last year didn’t go the way Bill Gates hoped. As a philanthropist who has dedicated billions to improving everything from healthcare and education in poor countries to climate change action, Gates could only watch as the Trump administration slashed swathes of foreign aid contracts.
The Microsoft co-founder has criticised the cost-cutting regime, much of which was enacted under Elon Musk’s Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He warned the action could directly result in the death of children, a claim which Tesla CEO Musk demanded evidence.
Writing in his annual letter this year, the Gates Foundation founder was optimistic but candid, writing: “I believe the world will keep improving—but it is harder to see that today than it has been in a long time.”
He added: “The thing I am most upset about is the fact that the world went backwards last year on a key metric of progress: the number of deaths of children under five years old. Over the last 25 years, those deaths went down faster than at any other point in history. But in 2025, they went up for the first time this century, from 4.6 million in 2024 to 4.8 million in 2025—an increase driven by less support from rich countries to poor countries.”
