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Bill Gates says Korea's leadership on health 'more important than ever' ahead of Seoul office opening

Published: 26 Aug. 2025, 16:01 Updated: 26 Aug. 2025, 16:05

President Lee Jae Myung, right, speaks with Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, in a meeting at the Yongsan presidential office in central Seoul on Aug. 21. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

[INTERVIEW]

Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation and founder of Microsoft, emphasized the role of Korea in global health during a visit to the country as his foundation is set to open a new office in Seoul.

"At a time when many donors have been making deadly cuts to global health and development funding, Korea has more than doubled that funding since 2018," said Gates in an exclusive interview with the JoongAng Ilbo during his visit to Korea. "That investment will save and transform lives in many countries."

Gates met with key political and business leaders from Aug. 20 to 22, including President Lee Jae Myung, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Chairman Chey Tae-won and HD Hyundai President and CEO Chung Ki-sun.

The Gates Foundation, which Gates founded in 2000 and continues to chair, is preparing to open a Seoul office — a move that underscores his deepening interest in Korea.

"But it’s not just Korea’s resources that are important in this moment," said Gates. "It’s also your country’s own experience as the first nation in history to go from aid recipient to donor. Korea’s story is proof that it pays off to invest in building a country’s capacity to carve a new path for itself."

He also gave the JoongAng Ilbo a glimpse into how he personally uses AI. What does Gates ask ChatGPT? And what advice does he have for young Koreans who dream of becoming the next Gates?

The following transcript has been edited for clarity.

Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, speaks during a discussion on Korea's global leadership at with parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee lawmakers at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Aug. 21. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Q. The Gates Foundation is the largest private donor and a key player in the global vaccine territory. Your passion for vaccines is well-known, but can you kindly offer some anecdotes for readers in Korea?

A. The former health minister of Senegal has talked about how in her culture, it was once a common saying that until your child reached age 5 and survived measles, you didn’t really have a child. The country once had wards full of children suffering from measles. Some of them would come home brain damaged and some of them wouldn’t come home at all. But then, thanks in part to the generosity of countries like South Korea through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Senegal was able to vaccinate more and more children. Today, measles cases have plummeted. Many of those once-crowded measles wards have closed down entirely.

My favorite chart is the one showing the decline in the number of kids who die before their fifth birthdays. That number has plummeted over the past few decades from over 10 million to less than 5 million per year — and vaccines are the single biggest reason why. They’ve given millions of kids across the planet the opportunity to live healthy and productive lives. And it’s why the foundation has been such a big funder of efforts to develop low-cost vaccines and ensure organizations like Gavi have the money to get them to everyone who needs them.

Q. While South Korea successfully tackled the pandemic via vaccination, there was quite a high level of anxiety on the safety of vaccines and their side effects. How can you persuade those vaccine skeptics?

For people who are skeptical that vaccines work, I’d want them to listen to people in places where communities still remember what life was like before kids got access to vaccines. There’s just no denying the firsthand testimony of people who have seen with their own eyes how many fewer kids are dying or becoming permanently disabled from childhood diseases.

For people who have a question about vaccine safety, I’d want them to have a conversation with their doctors or other health care professionals. The science on the safety of vaccines is clear and conclusive. Vaccines are held to the highest standard of safety and are rigorously tested and monitored.

SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, right, shakes hands with Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, at the SK Seorin Building in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Aug. 21. [SK]

Q. The last pandemic was evidence of vaccine inequality. What is the action plan to address this inequality in the global context and what is your assessment? What more should be done and how, especially when doctors and scholars commonly voice the possibility of another pandemic hitting the globe in the foreseeable future?

The good news is that we have a proven, cost-effective, time-tested strategy to take on vaccine inequality. Back in 2000, the Gates Foundation worked with a number of partners to build an alliance of countries and organizations who work together to lower barriers to vaccines and make sure kids across the world can be protected against preventable diseases.

Gavi has been incredibly successful. So far, this alliance has helped the world vaccinate 1.1 billion kids, which has saved an estimated 19 million lives.

But now, with so many countries pulling back on their health assistance, Gavi doesn’t have anywhere near the funding it needs to reach all the kids that it could. Fixing that is the most important thing we can do to take on vaccine inequality and help us prevent future global health emergencies.

Q. How is Korea part of your goals for the next 20 years? What do you expect from the Korean government, the new president and the Korean people?

Korea’s leadership is more important than ever. At a time when many donors have been making deadly cuts to global health and development funding, Korea has more than doubled that funding since 2018. That investment will save and transform lives in many countries.

But it’s not just Korea’s resources that are important in this moment. It’s also your country’s own experience as the first nation in history to go from aid recipient to donor. Korea’s story is proof that it pays off to invest in building a country’s capacity to carve a new path for itself. We need your voice in the global community to help remind us that global health and development investments work and to share lessons from your own experience about what investments are most impactful.

Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, center, sees off Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, right, after their lunch meeting at Samsung’s headquarters in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Aug. 22. [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Q. Korea is also often mentioned as a good example of a recipient-turned-donor country in the development space. How can Korea's specific experience and knowledge work together with the Gates Foundation to improve lives around the world?

In the health space, Korean scientists have developed a number of high quality, affordable innovations — and we at the Gates Foundation have been thrilled to support these efforts. We help fund the Research Investment for Global Health Technology Foundation, the first international public-private partnership funding agency in Korea that's dedicated to supporting global health research and development.

Companies like EuBiologics, SK Bioscience and LG Chemical have partnered with the Gates Foundation to develop vaccines that can help save and improve lives around the world. I mentioned Gavi earlier — well, roughly 11 percent of the vaccines that the Alliance distributes around the world are made by Korean companies. We’re also working with companies like Samsung to develop other health innovations — in everything from new diagnostics to improved toilets that can help low-income communities affordably improve sanitation.

These are just a few examples of exciting innovations coming out of Korea — and they illustrate how stepping into this global leadership role will help drive further growth for South Korea’s economy as well.

Q. According to your new essay "My New Deadline: 20 Years to Give Away Virtually All My Wealth," the foundation has so far saved more than 80 million lives. How happy are you with this achievement?

The progress that the world has made since we started the foundation has absolutely exceeded my expectations. Thanks to global coordination and investment from countries around the world, we turned the tide on diseases like HIV and malaria; helped millions more moms survive childbirth and kids survive their first, most vulnerable years; and helped over a billion people rise from extreme poverty.

It’s been one of the greatest eras of progress in human history — and that certainly didn’t seem inevitable back when we were starting the foundation. People tend to forget, but the early 2000s saw a lot of upheaval — from economic disruptions like the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and the burst of the dot-com bubble to health disruptions like the 2003 SARS outbreak to geopolitical disruptions like the Sept. 11 attacks and launch of the global War on Terror. I wouldn’t have told you back then that we were about to see a period of unprecedented global compassion and collaboration to improve our world, but we did.

That’s why right now, even with countries withdrawing billions of dollars in aid and many places around the world suffering from severe fiscal pressure, climate disasters and a host of other challenges, I’m not giving in to pessimism. And with the innovations currently in the pipeline, the world can match or even exceed the rate of progress of the past few decades. That’s why, earlier this year, I announced that over the next 25 years, I will give away $200 billion — virtually all my wealth — to help prevent the deaths of mothers and children, fight infectious diseases and help people lift themselves out of poverty. These are ambitious goals, but the world can absolutely achieve them if we choose to.

Bill Gates, third from left, chair of the Gates Foundation, and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, third from right, pose for a photo at a meeting in Seoul on Aug. 21. [SK GROUP]

Q. What are your favorite AI tools and why? What was your latest question for ChatGPT or other AI? Which AI tools do you use and why?

I’m lucky to know a lot of very smart people across a lot of fields and I used to bug them with a lot of questions. Now, more often than not, I ask ChatGPT the latest question I have on a topic like physics and I’ll copy its answer and ask my expert friends whether it’s gotten it right. Usually, it’s pretty accurate and of course getting more so all the time.

But my absolute favorite AI tools are the ones that give that level of knowledge to people who have no other way to access the knowledge they need. Think about a smallholder farmer in rural India, who doesn’t speak a major language in which there’s a lot of information online about farming techniques.

Right now, the Gates Foundation is working on tools that will give them the ability to access the world’s best farming knowledge in their local language, even on a very basic and affordable phone — as well as all the latest information on weather patterns, pricing fluctuations and more. That’s going to unlock remarkable efficiency and it will be key to helping farmers navigate how to succeed in a changing climate and feed a growing population. And this is just one of the potentially transformative impacts AI will have in the coming years — if we invest in getting these tools to the people who can benefit from them the most.

Q. What would you like to tell the youth in this country who want to be the next Bill Gates in the future?

I have three simple pieces of advice: be curious, read a lot and use the latest tools. Curiosity is the instinct that naturally leads us to worthwhile work and new ideas that can make life better, and books are the best tool I know for both sparking curiosity and chasing it to new discoveries. And then use the latest tools. We are lucky to live in a time when technological progress is giving us greater superpowers with every passing year — with AI being just the latest example. Taking the time to master these tools can help you make an even greater impact.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHUN SU-JIN [[email protected]]