The Gates Foundation has announced plans to spend at least US$1 billion over the next two years on efforts to expand access to artificial intelligence and AI-enabled solutions, opportunities and knowledge around the world.

The commitment was announced on 16 September 2026 alongside the launch of the foundation’s 10th annual Goalkeepers Report, which examines how artificial intelligence could affect inequality between the richest and poorest populations.

Focus on equitable access

The 2026 report is titled Make This Matter: AI, Equity, and the Choice We Can’t Delay. It argues that the direction of AI development is not predetermined and that the period for influencing who benefits from the technology is limited.

According to the Gates Foundation, the funding will support partners working to reduce gaps in access to AI. It will also back efforts to ensure that AI tools reflect the knowledge and priorities of the people who are expected to use them most.

The report includes examples of foundation-supported partners using AI in clinics, classrooms and on small farms. It also says that tools developed with the expertise of end users could place knowledge and advice in the hands of hundreds of millions of people who have not benefited from earlier technology revolutions.

The foundation said its report identifies three areas where action could help AI improve lives and livelihoods for more people. The supplied announcement did not provide details of all three areas or specify how the US$1 billion will be divided among them.

Call for broader action

The foundation is also calling on governments, companies developing AI and other stakeholders to contribute resources and expertise. It urged them to use their influence to make AI more useful, accessible and affordable.

Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, wrote in the report that the organisation was established partly to address unequal influence over innovation and investment.

“The Gates Foundation was created in part to address a basic market failure: the people with the greatest needs often have the least power to shape where innovation and investment go,”

Gates said AI presents the same challenge at a much faster pace. He warned that market forces alone could lead to the most capable tools being developed first for people and institutions able to pay the most, rather than for those who might benefit most.

“We can harness AI for good. But it won’t happen by accident,”

he wrote.

The report calls for a deliberate commitment from government leaders and technology companies to assess AI not only by what it can do for profitable users, but also by its potential benefits for people who stand to gain the most.

The foundation has not identified the specific partners expected to benefit from the funding, the countries or communities targeted, or a detailed implementation timetable beyond the two-year spending period.