Google News "Better to buy vaccines than go to Mars," Bill Gates attacks Elon Musk and Bezos?
by LORENZO CIOTTI | VIEW 546
"It's actually quite expensive to go to Mars. You can buy measles vaccines and save lives, a better motivation than going to Mars." These were the words of Bill Gates, released during an interview with the BBC, and they appear to be an attack on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Elon Musk has declared that he wants to colonize Mars. SpaceX, the rocket company Musk co-founded in 2002, has set itself the ultimate goal of sending manned flights to Mars and eventually colonizing the Red Planet. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, heads the aerospace company Blue Origin and made a short trip to space in 2021.
During his interview with the BBC, Gates also said, about the CoVD-19 global pandemic: "I guess people are scapegoating the pandemic, but conspiracies are too simplistic an explanation. Malevolence is much easier to understand than biology."
About Bill Gates
Born and raised in Seattle, Wash., Gates started Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; it would become the largest personal computer software company in the world.
Gates led the company as both chairman and CEO until January 2000, when he stepped down as CEO, but he remained chairman and became chief software architect. In June 2006, Gates announced he would move to a part-time role at Microsoft and to focus full-time on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the private charitable foundation he and ex-wife, Melinda Gates, established in 2000.
He moved gradually his assignments to Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie. He stepped down as Microsoft chairman in February 2014 and assumed a new role as technology advisor to new CEO Satya Nadella. Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution.
He has been criticized for trading tactics, which have been deemed anti-competitive. This opinion has been supported by numerous court decisions. Since 1987, Gates has been included in the list of the richest people in the world according to Forbes.
He held the title of richest person in the world from 1995 to 2017, except for four years, and held it continuously from March 2014 to July 2017, with an estimated net worth of US$89.9 billion as of October 2017. However, the July 27, 2017, and as of October 27, 2017, he was surpassed by Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who at the time had an estimated net worth of US$90.6 billion.
According to Forbes, as of November 17, 2022, Gates is worth an estimated $104 billion, making him the sixth richest person in the world. After leaving Microsoft, Gates pursued a variety of philanthropic endeavors. He donated large amounts of money to various charities and scientific research projects through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, believed to be the largest private foundation in the world.
In 2009, Gates and Warren Buffett founded The Giving Pledge, a campaign through which they and other billionaires pledge to donate at least half of their wealth to philanthropy. The foundation works to save lives and improve global health, and is working with Rotary International to eradicate polio.