Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, canceled on the 31st of last month (local time) the Microsoft CEO Summit-related dinner he had hosted every May at his home in Washington state. He also did not appear at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting, which he had attended every year in the same month. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 30th, citing Gates' close associates, that "Gates notified a few weeks before the May events that it would be better not to hold the dinner this year."
The absence of Gates extends beyond the dinner and the shareholders meeting. Since February, his name has been disappearing one after another from major stages where he was slated to appear this year, including a keynote at India's AI summit, a visit by the Gates Foundation to a group in South Africa, and CERAWeek, the energy industry's largest event.
Polling firm YouGov said Gates' unfavorable rating in the United States reached 40%. Although that is lower than Donald Trump at 57% and Elon Musk at 52%, it is an unusual result given that Gates has long been viewed as a bipartisan philanthropist symbolizing vaccines, poverty eradication, and global health.
Gates was scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the "AI Impact Summit," a leaders' meeting in New Delhi in mid-February that would bring together heads of state and technology figures. He proceeded normally with his itinerary, traveling through Mumbai, India's key economic hub, before arriving in the capital, New Delhi. However, in the days leading up to the keynote, Gates' name disappeared from the "key attendees" list on the conference website. Indian media, citing a government official, reported that "the invitation is under review due to indications that Gates appears in the Epstein files."
The Epstein files are investigative materials related to the "Epstein scandal," which alleged that Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire financier and sex offender who exploited minors, associated with powerful figures around the world. Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 while in custody. But as the scandal reignited afterward, numerous high-profile figures such as Gates and Trump have been drawn into alleged involvement. The Gates Foundation announced just hours before the scheduled keynote that "after careful consideration, to keep the focus on the core priorities of the AI summit, Gates will not deliver the keynote." The Indian government had Gates' side directly inform the change. This is seen as a signal that Gates is no longer an invited figure who enhances an event's prestige, but is starting to be treated as a reputational risk that could unsettle the agenda.
The leadership, including foundation CEO Mark Suzman, also removed Gates, the foundation's chair, from an official visit to South Africa that had been in the works. The organizers of CERAWeek, considered the energy industry's largest event, discussed in March inviting Gates as a speaker but decided not to do so, citing the heightened focus on the Epstein allegations. At the time, Gates reportedly joined a venture investor event held at another hotel a few blocks from the main venue, meeting energy industry partners and investors. The WSJ, citing a source, reported that "Gates sought to raise a new fund worth hundreds of millions of dollars that day, but some investors expressed reluctance, citing Gates' ties to Epstein and a scaling back of climate ventures," and that "he struggled with fundraising."
Warren Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha," a heavyweight in investing and philanthropy, has also been keeping his distance from Gates lately. Buffett said he had not spoken with Gates since additional Epstein files were released in February this year. For more than 20 years, the two showcased a special relationship as symbols of "giving billionaires" in the United States, with Buffett donating billions of dollars to the Gates Foundation.
The Gates Foundation said its own tracking of favorability, trust, and inspiration indexes for Gates found that most negative views are tied to the Epstein allegations. Among the 3.5 million pages of documents released in February under the Epstein Files Transparency Act by the U.S. Department of Justice were Epstein emails claiming "Gates contracted an STD after having sex with Russian women and hid it from his then-spouse Melinda." Gates acknowledged affairs with two Russian women at a foundation town hall in February. His ex-wife, Melinda Gates, criticized her former husband in an interview, saying she was "incredibly sad."
According to documents released at the same time, Gates met Epstein several times between 2011 and 2014 at Epstein's New York townhouse and in Florida, Seattle, and Europe. Gates apologized for meeting Epstein, saying he "did the opposite of the values of the foundation." He added, "There was no business or personal friendship with Epstein; we met only to discuss potential philanthropic fundraising."
A Spokesperson for Gates told the WSJ on the 30th that "Gates voluntarily agreed to cooperate with the House Oversight Committee's inquiry in early June," adding, "Gates supports full disclosure of the Epstein files and hopes the victims receive the justice they deserve." Gates is scheduled to appear at a closed-door House Oversight Committee inquiry on the 10th of next month with John Moran, a former U.S. Department of Justice official from the Republican Party, as his attorney. Gates' side agreed to forgo a video appearance and not to record the testimony.