Bill Gates takes a dig at Elon Musk, prefers making vaccines instead of going to Mars

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates frequently makes news for his philanthropic endeavors. He identifies as a humanitarian and has repeatedly stated his plans to donate a significant portion of his wealth, even if it means no longer being among the world's richest individuals. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Gates has a net worth of USD 111 billion and is currently ranked as the sixth-richest person in the world.

And now, the billionaire has said that he would rather make vaccines and save lives instead of heading off to Mars. Are you listening, Elon Musk?

Bill Gates thinks going to Mars isn't such a good idea

While Elon Musk has time and again spoken about his intent to 'colonise Mars', Bill Gates feels it is not such a great idea as it is actually quite expensive to head over to the Red Planet.

In an interview with the BBC, Bill Gates said, "It's actually quite expensive to go to Mars. You can buy measles vaccines and save lives for $1,000 (£814) per life saved." He added, "And so [that] just kind of grounds you, as in - don't go to Mars."

Bill Gates' views on Musk being a philanthropist

In the same interview, Bill Gates also talked about Musk and his philanthropic deeds, even though the Twitter owner might not exactly call himself much of a philanthropist.

"I think someday he'll (Elon Musk) be a great philanthropist," Bill Gates said, adding that "things like Tesla are having a positive impact even without being a form of philanthropy."

The Microsoft co-founder also said that he doesn't think that Elon Musk will spend most of his fortune on himself other than 'going to Mars a few times, which might cost a little bit'.

Bill Gates plans to donate all he owns

Last month, keeping up with his annual trend, Bill Gates conducted an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, in which he answered some of the questions put forward by internet users.

Referring to Bill Gates' estate, which also includes approx 2,75,000 acres of farmland in the US, a user asked him, "Isn't it contradictory to be a humanitarian and then accumulate the most scarce resource-land under one?"

Responding to the question, Bill Gates wrote that everything he owns will be sold in order to support his charitable foundation. "Everything I own will be sold as money moves into the Foundation. In the meantime, my investment group tries to invest in productive assets, including farmland, although that is less than 4% of the total," the billionaire answered.

In the year 2000, Bill Gates, along with his then-wife Melinda French Gates, established a charitable organisation called the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Even though the couple is now divorced, they continue running the foundation together. The foundation also actively works towards any global crisis and has committed over USD 2 billion to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.