Bill Gates accuses Musk of ‘killing’ children with aid cuts

US billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates intensified his ongoing dispute with Elon Musk, alleging that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was harming the world's most vulnerable children by making what Gates described as ill-advised reductions to US development aid.

In an interview, Gates said that the Tesla chief had acted through ignorance. In February, Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency in effect shut down the US Agency for International Development, the main conduit for US aid, saying it was "time for it to die".

The co-founder of Microsoft said the abruptness of the cuts had left life-saving food and medicines expiring in warehouses and could cause the resurgence of diseases such as measles, HIV and polio. "The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one," he told the Financial Times.

In a post on his website, Gates yesterday pledged to give away almost his entire personal wealth in the next two decades and said the world's poorest would receive some $200 billion via his foundation at a time when governments worldwide are slashing international aid, reports Reuters.

The 69-year-old billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist said he was speeding up plans to divest his fortune and close the Gates Foundation on December 31, 2045.

"People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that 'he died rich' will not be one of them," Gates wrote.

"There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people," he said.