Bill Gates reportedly quietly sent nearly $8 billion to the private foundation of his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, in what is being termed as one of the largest divorce-related payouts ever.

According to a report in Forbes, the amount has surfaced in a tax filing. As per the report Bill Gates donation skyrocketed Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation's assets by more than 1,000% to about $7.4 billion in 2024. As the number went up from $604 million at the end of 2023 to $7.4 billion. The $7.88 billion donation was made in 2024 to the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, according to a newly released tax filing reviewed by the New York Times’ DealBook.

Philanthropies Foundation focuses on women and families. The tax filing is said to mark the first time that concrete financial terms of the Gates’ 2021 divorce have been made public. Melinda Gates also manages some of her investments and charitable work through Pivotal Ventures, the investment company founded in 2015.

Bill Gates and Melinda Gates announced their decision to formally separate their philanthropic work in 2024, three years after their divorce became public.

In May 2024, Melinda French Gates said that she leaving the charitable foundation she co-founded with Bill Gates more than 20 years ago. Her last day at the foundation was June 7, 2024. "Under the terms of my agreement with Bill, in leaving the foundation, I will have an additional $12.5 billion to commit to my work on behalf of women and families," Melinda Gates said then in a post on social media platform X, without disclosing more details about her plans.

Post her departure as co-chair, the foundation changed its name to Gates Foundation and with Bill Gates as its sole chairperson. It’s unclear where the additional $4.6 billion was allocated.

The funds could have been given to French Gates’ LLC, Pivotal, which does not file a tax return, according to DealBook. As running alongside Pivotal Philanthropies is Pivotal Ventures, a LLC that does not require disclosure requirements that govern traditional nonprofits.

Bill Gates on Melinda Gates leaving Gates Foundation

"I am sorry to see Melinda leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work," Bill Gates wrote in a post on X.

Bill Gates and Melinda Gates divorce

In May 2021, Bill and Melinda French Gates announced their intention to divorce, saying they no longer believed they could “grow together”. Gates stepped down from Microsoft’s board in 2020, months before the divorce was announced. The couple also reportedly agreed to the division of real estate valued at more than $170 million, an art collection worth roughly $130 million and a significant block of Microsoft stock.In March 2022, Melinda Gates claimed that Jeffrey Epstein played a role in ending their 27-year marriage. During an appearance on “CBS Mornings,” Melinda shared that she decided to leave her marriage “for many things,” including her ex-husband’s ties to Epstein. “I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him,” she said at the time, adding that she only met the late pedophile once because she “wanted to see who” he was.