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Gates Foundation's holdings in fossil fuel firms rises despite divestment pledge
The Guardian
|January 20, 2026
The Gates Foundation Trust holds hundreds of millions of dollars in fossil fuel extractors despite Bill Gates's claims of divestment made in 2019.
End-of-year filings reveal that in 2024 the trust invested $254m (£190m) in companies that extract fossil fuels, such as Chevron, BP and Shell. This was a nine-year record and up 21% from 2016, the Guardian's analysis found. Adjusting for inflation, it was the highest amount since 2019.
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was ranked by Forbes as the world's wealthiest man for most of the years between 1995 and 2017. In 2000, he and his then wife, Melinda, set up the Gates Foundation, which is now the third largest charitable foundation in the world. It uses its resources for a range of causes including public health, poverty reduction, education and climate adaptation.
This story is from the January 20, 2026 edition of The Guardian.
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