American billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has transferred nearly $8 billion to a charity controlled by his former wife, Melinda French Gates, according to newly disclosed tax filings that shed fresh light on the financial terms of their high-profile divorce.
The donation, amounting to about $7.88 billion, was made in 2024 to Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, The New York Times reported. The filing represents one of the largest single charitable transfers ever recorded and provides the clearest public insight yet into the couple’s divorce settlement, finalized in 2021.
A spokesperson for Pivotal Philanthropies confirmed that the transfer was part of a broader $12.5 billion agreement reached between the former couple. The spokesperson said the agreement has now been fully executed.
Melinda French Gates established Pivotal Philanthropies in 2022, a year after the couple announced the end of their 27-year marriage. By the end of 2023, the foundation reportedly held assets worth about $604 million. She stepped down from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in May 2024, further separating her philanthropic work from that of her former husband.
Bill and Melinda Gates’ divorce is widely regarded as one of the most expensive in history. Reports following the split indicated that Melinda ultimately received assets estimated at around $76 billion as part of the broader settlement.
The divorce followed years of scrutiny surrounding Bill Gates’ personal conduct. In 2019, a former Microsoft employee wrote to the company’s board alleging an inappropriate relationship with Gates that reportedly began in 2000. The board investigated the claims and later described the relationship as “inappropriate,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
Gates resigned from Microsoft’s board in March 2020, while the investigation was still ongoing. Subsequent media reports alleged that he had pursued relationships with other staff members at Microsoft and at the philanthropic foundation he co-founded with Melinda.
Further controversy emerged over Gates’ past association with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender. Reports indicated that Gates had met Epstein on several occasions beginning in 2011 and had sought advice from him on personal matters, including marriage issues. Gates has since acknowledged the meetings, describing them as a mistake.
While Gates has previously expressed regret over aspects of his personal conduct, the latest disclosure underscores the scale of the financial arrangements that followed the dissolution of one of the world’s most prominent marriages.