Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates stated that he would prefer paying for life-saving vaccines than spending money traveling to Mars, contrasting his priorities with one of the world’s richest people.
In a BBC interview released on Thursday with journalist Amol Rajan, Gates stated that traveling to Mars is not a wise use of money, in his opinion.
“It’s actually quite expensive to go to Mars,” he told the BBC. “You can buy measles vaccines and save lives for $1,000 per life saved, and so it just kind of grounds you, as in: ‘Don’t go to Mars.'”
In a follow-up question, Rajan asked the billionaire if he would push Tesla founder Elon Musk to join the “club of mega philanthropists,” referring to Gates, Warren Buffett, and Jeff Bezos.
“Yeah, I think someday he’ll be a great philanthropist,” Gates said of Musk. “Obviously, things like Tesla are having a positive impact even without being a form of philanthropy. But at the end of the day, I don’t think — other than going to Mars a few times, which might cost a little bit — I don’t think he’ll want to spend it on himself.”
Gates added that he believes Musk will someday become a philanthropist “using his ingenuity.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established by Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French-Gates, has contributed tens of billions of dollars to developing and distributing vaccines in the world’s underdeveloped nations. In addition, the charity claims to have invested billions of dollars in initiatives in eradicating polio worldwide, including expanding access to vaccines.
Gates founded the Giving Pledge, through which some of the richest people in the world have agreed to donate the majority of their wealth, along with French Gates and Buffett.