How the Gates Foundation is reprioritizing and defending global health funding amid aid cuts

The Gates Foundation will continue to focus on its core goals despite massive foreign aid cuts, with at least 70% of its funding going towards ending preventable maternal and child deaths and controlling infectious diseases over the next 20 years. The foundation's CEO, Mark Suzman, stated that they will not take on new priorities and will instead narrow their focus on three core goals. Bill Gates announced in May that the foundation would close in 20 years, earlier than planned, and Suzman provided more details on what work would end and what would continue. The foundation will renew its campaign for donor countries to fund global health, with a focus on saving the lives of pregnant women and young children. Suzman expressed hope that the US would stay engaged in global health efforts over the medium and longer term. The foundation will wind down certain programs, including those aimed at providing digital financial services and helping people move out of poverty in the US. The economic mobility work will continue in a modified form, with a focus on developing AI tools to benefit frontline workers. The foundation plans to hold its budget steady at $9 billion annually for the next five years, before increasing it to meet Bill Gates' commitment to spend his fortune by 2045. The foundation is also betting on the potential of artificial intelligence tools to make gains in areas such as US education and agriculture, with a focus on developing open-source and interoperable solutions. The foundation's efforts will prioritize empowering local municipalities to develop and fine-tune AI models for their populations, with a focus on building trust and comfort with new technologies.