Bill Gates donates $20 billion to his foundation

FILE PHOTO: Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, attends a news conference at the World Economic Forum 2022 (WEF) in the Alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland May 25, 2022. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates is donating $20 billion to the charitable foundation run by him and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates to boost its annual distributions.

The donation will help the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - one of the world's largest private charitable foundations - increase its annual payout by 50% to $9 billion by 2026, he said in a post on his personal blog on Wednesday.