Bill Gates’s $200 billion gamble

Bill Gates’s $200 billion gamble

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The New York Times Magazine

May 17, 2025

On the cover this week: David Wallace-Wells talks to Bill Gates about his plan to accelerate the timeline for giving away his personal fortune and shut down The Gates Foundation several decades before originally intended.

Photograph by Katy Grannan for The New York Times

FEATURES

Bill Gates and three other people in white lab coats in front of a microscope and other equipment.

Dave Thompson/WPA Pool, via Getty Images

What to Know About Bill Gates’s Plans to End His Foundation

The billionaire philanthropist says he will accelerate his giving — but then dissolve his organization in 20 years, decades earlier than he originally planned.

By David Wallace-Wells

Ahmed Gaber for The New York Times

They Invented the Game. Will They Be Allowed to Play It in the Olympics?

Lacrosse returns to the Olympics in 2028, on American soil. Why won’t the I.O.C. let Indigenous North American teams compete?

By S. L. Price

The Interview

Rutger Bregman Wants to Save Elites From Their Wasted Lives

The historian is on a mission to get the best and brightest out of their lucrative jobs and into morally ambitious work.

42 MIN LISTEN

Donald J. Trump playing golf at Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 10, 2023.

Mike Stobe/Getty Images

Essay

‘Gimme’: A Word That Explains the President’s Worldview

The term helps explain why he sees little difference between accepting a putt and accepting a plane.

By Matthew Purdy

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