A Guardian analysis of publically available documents has found that the ‘Gates Foundation Trust holds hundreds of millions of dollars in fossil fuel extractors’.
Despite Bill Gates’ claims of divestment in fossil fuels, The Guardian’s research has found that the trust invested US $254m in companies including Chevron, BP and Shell in 2024.
According to the analysis, this was a nine-year record and up 21 percent from 2016.
The Guardian has noted that Bill Gates’ most recent public statements supported what he called a “strategic pivot” away from focusing on cutting emissions and towards preventing poverty and suffering.
The Gates Foundation – set up in the year 2000 by the tech billionaire Bill Gates and his then wife, Melissa – funds public health, poverty reduction, education and climate adaptation initiatives.
Campaign for fossil fuel divestment
In 2015, The Guardian targeted the Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation Trust to ‘delegitimise the business models of companies that are using investors’ money to search for yet more coal, oil and gas that can’t safely be burned’.
The newspaper’s analysis found that trust’s holdings in fossil fuel extractors reduced from $1.4bn in 2013 to $260m in 2015. However, since 2015, the value of the trust’s investments in fossil fuel companies had increased. Some of this growth can be accounted for by an increase in stock price rather than active investment.
Its Glencore holdings increased from $5.7m in 2015 to $14.1m in 2024, its BP holdings increased from $8.7m to $24.2m, and its Occidental Petroleum holdings rose from $23,529 to $7.9m, among others.
The Guardian has noted that Bill Gates’ most recent public statements supported what he called a “strategic pivot” away from focusing on cutting emissions and towards preventing poverty and suffering.
Millions more dollars investment in drilling equipment and pipes
The newspaper used a strict definition of ‘fossil fuel extractors’ in its report. It only included direct fossil fuel extractors, excluding millions of dollars invested in companies that provide drilling equipment, technological services, or own pipelines and refineries.
Its definition focuses on“upstream” fossil fuel producers, and excludes large conglomerates that own subsidiaries that extract.
The Guardian also excluded mutual funds that themselves hold investments in fossil fuel companies, though it included financing arms specifically devoted to raising capital for extractors, such as Shell Finance or Petrobras Global Finance.
Researchers used publicly available forms provided by the Gates Foundation.
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