The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a $912 million contribution to the Global Fund to combat AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, while urging governments not to scale back health financing.

Bill Gates revealed the commitment in an interview with Reuters on September 23, ahead of the foundation's annual“Goalkeepers” event in New York. He said the world is at a“crossroads” and warned that millions of children could die from preventable diseases if funding continues to decline.

The pledge, equal to the foundation's 2022 contribution, comes as the United States and other wealthy nations reduce foreign aid budgets. According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, global health assistance fell by 21 percent between 2024 and 2025, reaching its lowest level in 15 years.

Gates stressed that philanthropy cannot replace government aid but can help lower the cost of vaccines and treatments in low-income countries. He pointed to innovations such as long-acting HIV prevention drugs and maternal health research supported by the U.S. and the foundation.

The billionaire philanthropist has vowed to donate nearly his entire $200 billion fortune by 2045, accelerating the timeline to meet urgent global health needs. He emphasized that without stronger international commitments, decades of progress-such as halving child mortality since 2000-could be undone.

UNICEF and other UN agencies have also warned of a worsening global health outlook, particularly in fragile states where collapsing health systems and restrictions on aid access are leaving children at greater risk of illness and malnutrition.

Experts say sustained investment in the Global Fund and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, will be vital for achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Without renewed commitments, they warn, preventable child deaths could rise sharply and efforts to eradicate deadly diseases may stall.

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