The Bill Gates-backed campaign urging billionaires to donate most of their fortunes to good causes is reportedly facing backlash as tech moguls mock the philanthropy club and Gates’ recently revealed ties to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continue to shadow the initiative.
Critics like Peter Thiel, who is not a signatory, have derided the Giving Pledge initiative as an “Epstein-adjacent, fake Boomer club” and privately urged fellow billionaires — including Elon Musk — to abandon the pledge, according to the New York Times.
Thiel told Musk that he should pull out of the initiative because his money would go “to left-wing nonprofits that will be chosen by Bill Gates,” the Times reported, citing a recent speech that Thiel gave.
Gates has come under fire in recent weeks after he admitted to cheating on his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, with two Russian women that he met through the late Epstein.
The pledge has also drawn criticism from some tech investors who argue that modern philanthropy has become intertwined with progressive politics.
Critics say many of the nonprofits and foundations favored by major donors — particularly those tied to global health, climate initiatives and diversity programs — reflect left-leaning priorities, fueling claims that the Giving Pledge has become associated with “woke” causes rather than politically neutral charity.
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has argued that philanthropy once functioned as a kind of reputational bargain for billionaires — allowing them to “wash away all of your sins” and be recast as virtuous donors.
Since then, however, that social contract has broken down as criticism of the tech sector has intensified.
Brian Armstrong, the billionaire founder of Coinbase, quietly exited the initiative in 2024 — removing his name from the pledge’s website five years after signing on, the Times reported.
Even some early supporters are said to be rethinking their commitments.
Larry Ellison, the Oracle co-founder and one of the original signatories, said last year he was “amending” his pledge to focus more heavily on for-profit research ventures, the Times reported.
Critics have argued the undertaking lacks teeth, noting it carries no enforcement mechanism and does not track how much money signatories actually donate — allowing billionaires to fulfill the promise decades later through their estates.
Skeptics also note that much of the pledged wealth is routed into private foundations or donor-advised funds, vehicles that can allow billions to sit for years before reaching operating charities, the Times reported.
Taryn Jensen, the interim head of The Giving Pledge, defended the initiative, telling The Post in a statement that debate over philanthropy is “inevitable and welcome” and noting the campaign now includes more than 250 donors across 30 countries — many of whom “have already met their commitments or are steadily working toward them.”
Jensen added the goal is to keep “building a culture where giving is the norm” while helping signatories turn their pledges “into action.”
Launched in 2010 by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett, the pledge asks the world’s wealthiest people to commit to giving away the majority of their fortunes to charity either during their lifetimes or after death.
Bill Gates has said Epstein — who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges — was one of the factors behind his split from his wife of 27 years.
Gates has acknowledged meeting Epstein several times after the latter’s 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor, saying he regretted the encounters.
French Gates stepped away from the foundation that administers the Giving Pledge in 2024, three years after the divorce.
“I firmly believe in the Giving Pledge and consider it quite a success, though my physical limitations have eliminated my participation in the annual get-together,” the 95-year-old Buffett, who recently stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told the Times.
“I have continued to contact possible members but only on a minor scale in recent years. Bill Gates has continued major efforts.”
French Gates has acknowledged that the results of the pledge have been uneven. She recently told Wired that some participants have donated at a “massive scale,” while others have moved more slowly.
“Some are doing it, and some are trying or aren’t ready to,” she said.
French Gates added that the initiative has not progressed as far as she once hoped.
“I wish we had been even more successful with the Pledge than we have been to date,” she said. “It’s a problem to continue working on.”
The Post has sought comment from Gates, French Gates, Thiel, Ellison, Armstrong and Buffett.
