Bill Gates quietly sent nearly $8 billion to the private foundation of his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, in what amounts to one of the largest divorce-related payouts ever disclosed.
The $7.88 billion donation was made in 2024 to the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, a relatively new nonprofit launched by French Gates, according to a newly released tax filing reviewed by the New York Times’ DealBook.
The filing marks the first time concrete financial terms of the Gateses’ 2021 divorce have been made public following their decision to formally separate their philanthropic work in 2024.
French Gates said when she stepped down as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that she would receive billions to fund independent work focused on women and families under the settlement.
In the immediate aftermath of the split, Gates transferred billions of dollars in stock to his ex through Cascade Investment, the software mogul’s private holding company and investment firm.
The couple also agreed to the division of real estate valued at more than $170 million, an art collection worth roughly $130 million and a significant block of Microsoft stock — a division t left her with an estimated $25 billion in assets, according to Forbes.
The recently disclosed payment was tied to a separate charitable agreement triggered by French Gates’ exit from the Gates Foundation. Gates pledged $12.5 billion for his ex’s independent philanthropy, with $7.88 billion flowing to Pivotal Philanthropies and the remaining roughly $4.6 billion believed to have gone to Pivotal Ventures, a limited liability company shielded from public disclosure.
For years, the benchmark for mega-billionaire divorces was the 2019 split between Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott, which transferred roughly $38 billion in Amazon stock to the ex-wife.
The apparent straightforwardness of the Bezos-Scott split marked a contrast with the Gates divorce, which unfolded over years through stock transfers, real estate and a delayed multibillion-dollar philanthropic separation.
In May 2021, Bill and Melinda French Gates announced their intention to divorce, saying they no longer believed they could “grow together” — a split that followed years of private strain and growing public scrutiny of Gates’ conduct and associations. The divorce was finalized in August of that year.
French Gates later cited Gates’ meetings with late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a major reason for the rupture, saying the relationship deeply troubled her and contributed to a breakdown of trust that ultimately proved irreparable.
The marital angst was compounded by revelations that Gates had an affair with a Microsoft employee in 2000 and later exchanged emails with another female employee in 2008 that were deemed inappropriate — conduct that prompted a board review years later.
Gates stepped down from Microsoft’s board in 2020, months before the divorce was announced.
In 2022, French Gates launched Pivotal Philanthropies as part of her broader Pivotal organization, which was created to pursue independent grantmaking and impact investing focused on women, families and social progress.
The foundation vaulted into the top tier of American philanthropy last year after the multibillion-dollar infusion, reporting nearly $7 billion in assets and instantly transforming what had been a modest operation into one of the country’s largest private grantmaking vehicles, according to DealBook. It added that by the end of 2023, Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation reported assets totaling $604 million.
Running alongside Pivotal Philanthropies is Pivotal Ventures, a LLC that gives French Gates flexibility to pursue charitable grants, investments and advocacy work without the disclosure requirements that govern traditional nonprofits.
The Post has sought comment from Gates and French Gates.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
