This is infinitely more productive behaviour from a billionaire than philanthropy, imo.

At the societal scale, philanthropy's only significant impact is the laundering of billionaire's reputations and an on-going justification for their wealth hoarding.
Here's why (thread 1/n): https://twitter.com/Ad_Inifinitum/status/1348187316360241155

Bill Gates has reportedly donated around $40 billion to The Bill Gates Foundation over the course of its 20ish year history.
Its homepage is introduced by the quote "ALL LIVES HAVE EQUAL VALUE".
All caps so they must mean it ...
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/who-we-are/general-information/foundation-faq

Which is hard to square when Bill Gates is what? A million times more rich than the average person?

Their stated mission is impossible without doing things like SIGNIFICANT infrastructure investment in the developing world at the kind of scales only Governments have historically achieved.

For context, in almost the same 20 yr span, China has spent more than $124 bn *in just Africa* on infrastructure around the continent that will long-term inc prosperity in the region by improving trade links between African countries and externally https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-china-africa-20180903-story.html

It's also maybe probably quite likely a debt trap that will DEFINITELY more significantly benefit China in the short-medium term.

Yet Bill Gates, bolstered by hubris, thinks that his immeasurable intelligence is enough to make up the HUGE resource shortfall in the money needed to address the balance between the "developed" and "developing" world.

And that's the logistical side of philanthropy being a scam ...
TL;DR: it's nowhere near enough but because it's scales of money we can't comprehend anyway, nobody notices.

The other obviously shit thing about Bill Gates is that he's fucking shit at it. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/12/bill-and-melinda-gates-say-education-philanthropy-is-not-having-impact.html

Imagine handing over the traditionally democratically managed education of kids that will one day shape the future of your country to a rich, egotistical man and his whims. It's absurd to me.