Gates Foundation pledges $1 billion to expand AI access

The Gates Foundation has pledged $1 billion to broaden access to artificial intelligence, according to an Associated Press report dated September 15, 2026. Bill Gates made the appeal in the foundation's annual Goalkeepers report, which follows progress on the United Nations development goals set for 2030. He urged technology companies and world leaders to act now so that AI reduces social inequities instead of deepening them. The money announced on a Tuesday is to be spread over two years.

The funding targets AI work on local-language models, health outcomes, educational tools and advice for small farmers worldwide. The report describes roughly $400 million for education, about $400 million for healthcare and around $100 million for agriculture. Separately, about $100 million is meant to build data sets in languages spoken by underserved communities. Examples include a tool that helps teachers rebuild lessons around concepts their classes grasped least, and one that checks clinicians' reports for missed symptoms.

The foundation is working with major AI firms. An open funding call on frameworks for underrepresented African languages was launched with help from Google.org and a Microsoft lab focused on AI for good. OpenAI committed $50 million to train health workers in Rwandan clinics, and Anthropic is working on vaccine development and on a chatbot data set of local crops. CEO Mark Suzman called the sums a tiny proportion of what technology giants spend on commercial products, and said further talks with those companies are under way.

Gates wrote that AI could prove either a great leveller or a major source of injustice. The report arrives ahead of the UN General Assembly's high-level meetings in New York the following week. Suzman also said the foundation would keep pressing the US government to lead on foreign assistance despite aid cuts.