Bill Gates says he hasn't given up his fortune to fight climate change because 'innovation is not just a check-writing process'

• Bill Gates discussed climate tech and the inflation reduction act on a recent podcast.
• Gates said he hasn't given away his fortune because "innovation is not just a check-writing process."

Bill Gates, currently ranked as the world's fifth-richest person, revealed to Bloomberg on Thursday why he hasn't donated his vast fortune to fight climate change as fellow billionaires announce splashy contributions toward their own pet causes.

"Well, innovation is not just a check-writing process — the cost is way greater than what anyone could fund," he told Bloomberg Green reporter Akshat Rathi.

On the latest episode of Bloomberg's Zero podcast, Rathi interviewed Gates about climate tech and the Inflation Reduction Act passed this August, which will invest $369 million into climate solutions in order to reduce US carbon emissions by 40% over the next eight years.

The billionaire philanthropist founded the organization Breakthrough Energy in 2015 to invest in clean energy technologies and was instrumental to the bill's passage behind the scenes, Bloomberg reports. The hands-on approach differs from recent charitable donations of other billionaires, a practice that Gates argues is less effective.

"You've also said that we need to do everything we can to accelerate innovation. What's stopping you from giving away all your money to innovation right now?" Rathi asked Gates on Thursday's podcast.

In response, Gates provided the example of when he became involved in "reinventing" nuclear fission through TerraPower, a nuclear reactor design company he founded in 2015.

"I put about a billion dollars into that," he said. "But my key value-add was finding the basic idea for much safer, cheaper, low-waste solutions, and bringing those brilliant people together on the software modeling skills."

Gates also pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act as a second example of how climate tech innovation is "not just purely a financial thing."

"I was personally involved in a lot of what got written into it, and then working with the key senators in the last month to get it to pass — that's far greater than any individual fortune. And I'm orchestrating a lot of people," he said.

Later in the interview, Gates said he invests around $9 million a year toward climate initiatives.

"But just having a few rich countries, a few rich companies, and a few rich individuals buy their way out so they can say they're not part of the problem, that has nothing to do with solving the problem," he told Bloomberg. "Solving the problem is finding innovators building these innovative companies."