Gates Foundation Trust

The Gates Foundation makes grants and strategic investments aligned with our mission and identified priority focus areas. The money for that activity—the foundation’s endowment—is held and managed by the Gates Foundation Trust. This two-entity structure enables us to keep our program work separate from decisions about investing our assets. This ensures that the foundation’s experts can focus solely on our mission.  

How the trust works

Our endowment has been funded by our co-founders, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett, the former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Among the three, Bill and Warren continue to make contributions to the endowment. Bill is the trustee of the Gates Foundation Trust, and the endowment is managed by Cascade Asset Management Company, whose independent investment managers are not directly affiliated with the foundation. Warren has no involvement in the investment of the endowment through the Foundation Trust, including decisions that might be made regarding Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stock. 

With the exception of Bill, the foundation’s board and staff have no influence over trust investment decisions and no visibility into the trust’s investment strategies or holdings other than what is publicly available via required public disclosures (such as the foundation’s annual tax return, Form 990). 

In May 2025, Bill announced that the foundation would close its doors permanently on December 31, 2045, and that in the interim he would dedicate virtually all of his remaining personal wealth to fund foundation efforts to save and improve lives. The endowment funds, including Bill’s additional contributions between now and the foundation closure date, is estimated to be spent by the end of 2045, roughly.