He added: “The thing I am most upset about is the fact that the world went backwards last year on a key metric of progress: the number of deaths of children under five years old. Over the last 25 years, those deaths went down faster than at any other point in history. But in 2025, they went up for the first time this century, from 4.6 million in 2024 to 4.8 million in 2025—an increase driven by less support from rich countries to poor countries.”
“Friends and colleagues often ask me how I stay optimistic in an era with so many challenges and so much polarization,” Gates wrote. “My answer is this: I am still an optimist because I see what innovation accelerated by artificial intelligence will bring.”
But, that optimism comes with a deadline, or as Gates puts it “there are footnotes to my optimism.”
“The next five years will be difficult as we try to get back on track and work to scale up new lifesaving tools,” Gates continued. “As hard as last year was, I don’t believe we will slide back into the Dark Ages.”
“I believe that, within the next decade, we will not only get the world back on track but enter a new era of unprecedented progress.”
In a bid to bridge a gap in government funding, Gates is calling on fellow wealthy philanthropists. He wrote: “This idea of treating others as you wish to be treated does not just apply to rich countries giving aid. It must also include philanthropy from the wealthy to help those in need—both domestically and globally—which should grow rapidly in a world with a record number of billionaires and even centibillionaires.”
Gates added: “I know cuts won’t be reversed overnight, even though aid represented less than 1% of GDP even in the most generous countries. But it is critical that we restore some of the funding.”
