Why does Melinda French Gates think Elon Musk and other billionaires are not philanthropists? Bill Gates’ ex-wife shares her thoughts

Bill Gates' ex-wife and former Microsoft manager Melinda French Gates thinks that Elon Musk and other modern-day billionaires akin to him are not philanthropists. In an interview with The New York Times published on Sunday, July 28, Melinda French Gates insisted that Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Bill Ackman, and Peter Thiel haven't been "very philanthropic yet."

She claimed that these aforementioned billionaires had a low record of giving money to society. In her opinion, these billionaires just used their voice and their megaphones and had to be put in a different bracket from people like her, her ex-husband Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet.

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Melinda French Gates called Elon Musk and other modern billionaires "nonphilanthropists"

In a recent all-encompassing interview with The New York Times, the interviewer told Melinda French Gates that she, Warren Buffet, and Bill Gates were thought of as coming from a different generation of billionaire activists with a “traditional approach to philanthropy.” This was in comparison to more modern billionaires like Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, American hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

Melinda French Gates was asked if she saw the generation shift among the superwealthy and how they perceive and use their place in culture. French Gates pointedly replied:

"Well, the people you just named have not been very philanthropic yet. They use their voice and they use their megaphones, but I would not call those men philanthropists."

French Gates was asked if this was because they weren't members of The Giving Pledge, a charitable campaign founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in which the superwealthy pledge most of their wealth to charitable causes during their lifetime or in their will.

Melinda noted that some of these billionaires have signed up for The Giving Pledge, and signing up for the pledge was not the exact path they have to follow to be philanthropists. She further stated:

"Go look at their record of actually giving money to society. It’s not big. So you put Bill and me and Warren in a class of philanthropists doing things in a certain way, but I don’t think you can then say, “OK, well, let’s compare to this group over here who are nonphilanthropists.” Those are nonphilanthropists, in my opinion."

When asked why some people choose to go one way, while others go another way, and yet others do nothing, Melinda French Gates simply stated that the conundrum has existed in society for a long time. According to her, it was simple: some wealthy people chose to give their money back to society while other wealthy folks chose not to do so.

Gates also noted that when the original signatories of the Giving Pledge and the next generation sat together in a room, she could see that the younger people were seeing society differently and also seeing issues that they wanted "to further and to forward."

When Melinda French Gates took to X in late June to endorse Joe Biden for president, Elon Musk replied that this "might be the downfall of Western civilization." During the interview, when Gates was asked for a comment on Elon's tweet, she simply said that she found it "silly."

To elaborate, Gates talked about how tech CEOs gave advice on areas that were unrelated to their field. She recalled how she'd seen tech leaders interviewed on their parenting style, including a male CEO who spends 60 hours a week in the office. Melinda French Gates explained:

"I’m sure he’s a fantastic C.E.O. and has done a great job — maybe or maybe not — in their company. But then they get asked about parenting, and they spew all this stuff, and you think, Something doesn’t add up here. So I just — some of these comments to me are just kind of silly."

Back in May of this year, Melinda French Gates announced she was leaving the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which was founded by her and Bill Gates in 2000 and has donated around $80 billion since. The foundation, which happens to be the largest philanthropic organization in the United States, will soon be simply called The Gates Foundation.