Alright. I dont consider myself a journalist. And nobody else would consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of being an interviewer, even though i have a day job of running a private equity firm. How do you define leadership . What is it that makes somebody tick . For about 20 years or so, you have been the wealthiest man in the world. But because you have given away so much money recently, jeff bezos became wealthier. Do you think if you had stayed in college and gotten your College Degree [laughter] i mean, you dont feel inadequate now, being only the second wealthiest man in the world, is that right . Bill no. I mean it is a sign that i have not given the money away fast enough to drop out of the top 10. And, you know, the market has been strong. [applause] david actually, the market has been strong. Microsoft is up 35 this year. So to what do you attribute that . Bill the company is doing super well. Satya nadella is a great ceo. You know, the whole dream of the importance of software has really come true. The five most valuable companies in the world are these Technology Companies. Microsoft, you know, has a good share of that. I get to spend about a sixth of my time, now, over at microsoft. David so, recently, you said the biggest mistake you made professionally was that microsoft should have had the android technology. Why was that the biggest mistake . Bill when you are in a field you know, we were in the field of doing operating systems for personal computers. We knew the mobile phone would be very popular. And so we were doing what was called windows mobile. We missed being the dominant mobile operating system by a very tiny amount. We were distracted. We did not assign the best people to do the work. So it is the biggest mistake i made in terms of something that within our skill set. We were clearly the company that should have achieved that. David your two main areas of focus are k12 education in the United States and health care in the least wealthy parts of the world. Recently, youve decided to make another effort, not necessarily through your foundation, but through Breakthrough Energy to do something about Climate Change. Why are you so worried about Climate Change . Bill well, Climate Change is a problem that gets worse every year. And yet, what you have to do on a global basis is very dramatic in reshaping the entire physical economy that we have. And so it is a very complex problem, and it is a problem that fits where i see my value added, which is looking at something through the lens of innovation. Not just the r d part, but the creation of products and the deployment of products. And so helping educate people about, ok, what are the sources of these Greenhouse Gases and how do you get on a path of innovation, so that you can get Global Adoption and actually bring emissions down dramatically . David is that part of your foundation or are you doing this outside your foundation . Bill ok, the part where you mitigate and you help the poor countries with better seeds and better policies, partly through development aid, that is through the foundation. That mitigation part. The part where you invent new ways of making fuels, electricity, cement, steel, meat, that is done directly by me with a lot of investments, including the fund that you mentioned, the socalled Breakthrough Energy ventures is a fund that i assembled, a group of 22 people to put money into companies that are trying to commercialize the breakthroughs. David all right, but that is a fund of 1 billion. Bill right. David you put in 250 million. So can 1 billion really make that much of a difference . Bill 1 billion it has actually been very catalytic. So far, they have 20 investments. Late next year, we will probably raise another 1 billion to 1. 5 billion. You know, this is all about innovation. So right now, the premium if you said, ok, you have to make steel with no emissions. That steel will cost you four times what steel does today. Your electric bill would more than double if we just take the technology we have today. So, yes, supporting those companies and drawing other investors in. One thing Breakthrough Energy has done is gotten a lot of coinvestors. Green investing did not go very well in the first round. And so it looked like a field that might evaporate, to some degree. Because bbe has been able to come in and bring the depth of understanding to these things, not only have they been able to invest, the first 1 billion will be fully committed within the next year, but we have other investors. So that has gone quite well. And the technology they only invest in companies who have a chance of reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions by a half a percent. Each company. And you know, they found 20, and i am sure they will find another 20. David i am the smallest investor in that fund, i think, so am i going to get my money back and make a return . Or what would you say . [laughter] bill i would say, of the things you invest in, it is probably one of the higher risk things. It is being done on a commercial basis. You know, we are likely to have a few significant successes. So it is not philanthropic in the sense that you can deduct it. [laughter] but the timeframe of the returns and the riskiness of the returns are fairly high. So we do expect to make a profit out of that fund. David so why do you think some people do not believe that there is such a thing as Climate Change . What is propelling them to say there is no Climate Change . Is it Scientific Evidence or some other political reason . I wont mention anybody, but there are some people who do not think that there is Climate Change. Bill well, you know, they must not have taken enough science courses or something i do not know. [laughter] [applause] the climate is a complex issue. And just understanding how you do the abatement requires a lot of indepth study. In the United States, it has become somewhat of a partisan issue, which is unfortunate. You know, it might make it harder to achieve the type of agreements we need here in the United States. But, you know, we have two problems. We have the people who deny climate, and then we have the people who think it is easy to solve. And we need to help educate both of those groups. David but in the history of human civilization, is there any evidence that people will do things that will affect their greatgreatgrandchildren but that they will not see the benefit from . Bill well, the United States, actually, of all governments, has been willing to take on very difficult problems, like cancer, and make gigantic investments, knowing that the real payoff would be many decades down the road. You know, when that was first saying, hey, this is important. You know, when that was first being pushed, people were saying, hey, this is important. Climate change is like that, where you have got to take a longterm perspective. And government at its best is when it is taking that longterm perspective and funding the basic r d and the policies that leads to fullscale deployments. David do you worry that there is too much power and too much data in the hands of these Technology Companies . Bill well, technology has become so central that government has to think, ok, what does that mean about elections . What does it mean about bullying . David now, a large part of the carbon we have in the atmosphere now is caused by the electricity grid, which is about 25 or so. Bill exactly. David so 24 , it comes from agriculture and forestry. Why is that causing such a big increase in carbon . Bill well, the category is a variety of things. When you clear land, you are taking in the carbon that is stored, say, in the trees and plants and everything, and you are releasing all of that. Like burning the land, say in indonesia, for palm oil plantations. Another thing is that cows and other grasseating species have a digestion system that emits methane. And methane is a very powerful Greenhouse Gas. And so cows alone account for about 6 of global emissions. And so we need to change david cows . Bill cows. Just cows alone. [laughter] david how are we going to do that . Bill well, actually, of all the categories, the one that has gone better than i wouldve expected five years ago is this work to make what is called artificial meat. And so you have people like impossible or beyond meat, both of which i invested in david do you eat it as well . Do you like it . Bill absolutely. You can go to burger king and buy the impossible burger. David all right. Is it healthier for you . Or just healthier for the atmosphere . Bill it is slightly healthier for you in terms of less cholesterol. It is, of course, a dramatic reduction in methane emissions, animal cruelty, manure management, and the pressure that Meat Consumption puts on landuse. David what about electric cars . Do you think thats a solution . Bill absolutely. If you look at the transport sector david thats another 14 of bill passenger cars, with about another factor of about two to three in battery improvement, which is possible, the mainstream for passenger cars can become electric. So you have to make that transition. Youve got to scale it up. Youve got to make sure electricity is zero emission. But, for trucks and planes, there is almost no chance the batteries will be good enough. And so, there, you will still need to create liquid fuels, either with electricity or biofuels. Some way. Fuels are amazing. You know, the Energy Density of gasoline is 30 times the Energy Density of the best battery we can make. And so, if you look at, like, a container ship that crosses the ocean, having your fuel be 30 times less efficient would mean that 90 of the weight you are carrying would be the batteries instead of the cargo. And so trucks and planes and boats, electrification is unlikely to work in those cases. So we need ways of making fuels that are zero carbon. David when you talk to heads of state about this, do they roll their eyes and say, well, we are happy to meet you, can i have a selfie with you and so forth, but do they really do anything and what are you trying to get heads of state to do . Bill well, in the paris climate conference, one of the things that was missing was a focus on r d. So, actually, france said, yes, we want that to be, for the first time at a cop, a real issue that gets discussed. And so what was called mission innovation, which Prime Minister modi got to pick that name, that idea, the commitment of over 30 governments to double their energy r d, was a significant milestone that came out of the conference. In order to get that commitment, i had to make a commitment that there would be Breakthrough Energy that would take things out of those labs and help get them into the marketplace. So there has been some progress. Climate is complicated enough that you want a broad set of people in the government to understand the complexities. And in terms of the r d work that needs to be done, unless the u. S. Is deeply engaged, it is unlikely to happen, because so much of the worlds capacity to do that innovation is here in the United States. David so the United States pulled out, more or less, of the paris accord, though not technically so for another year or so. Is that of concern to you, and do you think this is going to hurt the effort to change Climate Change around the world . Bill yeah, it is a huge step backwards. Even if you meet all the current commitments in that climate accord, you are still way over two degrees of warming, and most countries are behind the commitments they made. Those commitments were a set of reductions where you would compare your 2030 emissions to your 2005 emissions. David right. Bill and there is a little bit of that that is easy. The shift from coal to natural gas, which is a one time thing, is a lot of that. And yet, the world is falling short. And so to have people like the United States say, ok, even that is not important, it just shows how daunting this is going to be. There is no way we will get there without the u. S. Coming back in in a strong way. David do you think, if you met with president trump, you could convince him, on paris, to maybe get back in . Or is that beyond your capabilities to do that . Bill i i someone else should do that. [laughter] david all right. Now, the Largest Companies in the world and in the United States today are Technology Companies apple, facebook, google, microsoft, and so forth. Do you worry that there is too much power and too much data in the hands of these Technology Companies, and are you surprised the government has not done something more than they have today about this . Bill well, technology has become so central that government has to think ok, what does that mean about elections . What does it mean about bullying . What does it mean about wiretapping authorities that let you find out what is going on financially, or drug Money Laundering and things like that. So, yes, the government needs to get involved. I, for the early years of microsoft, bragged to people that i did not have an office in washington, d. C. I came to regret that statement, because it was kind of almost like taunting washington, d. C. And so now the Technology Companies partly because of the lesson of microsoft of course, they could have seen that lesson through at t or ibm or kodak or a lot of innovators as well, they are very engaged. There will be more regulation of the tech sector. Things like privacy. Im sure they will, and there should be, at some point, federal regulation that relates to that. The fact that, now, this is the way people consume media has really brought it into a realm that we need to shape it so that the benefits outweigh the negatives. David you have three children, seem to be welladjusted, and you have kept them out of the newspapers and so forth. How do you avoid spoiling kids like that . Bill i think that is a huge problem. David so if you were 20 years old today, and you wanted to start a new company, drop out of harvard, what company or what area would you want to start it in . Bill well, this is a great time to be doing innovation, because the tools of innovation are so much better. There are lots of things in biology that are very interesting. There are lots of things in energy that are interesting. Given my background, i would start an a. I. Company whose goal would be to teach computers how to read, so that they can absorb and understand all the written knowledge of the world. That is an area where a. I. Has yet to make progress, and it will be quite profound when we achieve that goal. David so are you worried about the power of a. I. To disrupt our civilization, to people to put people out of work, those kinds of things . Bill the increased productivity that will come from a. I. Will create dilemmas about what should people do with that extra time. And youve got to consider that a good thing, even though it will be an interesting set of adjustments that have to take place. David you assessed the two most urgent issues were k12 in the United States and health in the less developed areas. How did you pick those two . Any regrets about picking those two, and have you made progress on either of those two . Bill well, Global Health is our biggest area, and, there, the progress has been really unbelievable. Not just because of our work but our partners, that include the u. S. Government spending on the pepfar, the european donors who have really stepped up on these health issues. One of the metrics of importance is the number of children in the world who die before the age of five. When we got started, in the year 2000, that was over 10 million a year. Now, it is about 5 million a year. And so, you know, it is just mind blowing. And people are not as aware of it as you would like them to be. Those deaths, because of getting out vaccines and understanding a bit more about nutrition, those deaths have been cut in half. Now, the goal is to cut them in half again by 2030. Our u. S. Education work, that is not just k12 but includes higher ed, as well, there, the key metrics dropout rates, math and verbal achievements those metrics have moved, essentially, not at all. And even as the u. S. Is spending more resources on education we spend, by far, more than any country in the world, and yet our results are quite a bit worse than almost all the other rich countries and even some middle income countries. You know, even vietnam now is passing us in terms of their math results. So, there, the field, as a whole, and our work has not had the impact we had hoped for. David today, people come to you all the time for money, i assume. Everywhere you go, people say, by the way, i have this thing you should really invest in. I have a couple myself i will mention later no, just kidding. [laughter] a couple of things that you should invest in or give money to. How do you resist . Do you have a person that says no for you . How do you do that . Bill many people. David many people say no. Bill once you pick what you care about, if somebody has something that can make a difference in Global Health, we are super interested. You know, we have a staff of 1500 people, and if it is to do with Global Health, some of those people come out and talk through with you whatever your innovation is and how we can partner with you on that. So that is clearly in our area. If it is something that can substantially improve k12 education, then we are going to be very interested in it. If people are asking outside of those things, then, fortunately, you can say no, because focus is key to philanthropy. David so people have recognized, over the years, that raising children is difficult. Jackie kennedy famously said, if you mess up raising your children, nothing else matters. You have three children, seem to be welladjusted, and you have kept them out of the newspapers and so forth. How do you avoid spoiling kids like that . Bill i think that is a huge problem. Obviously, our kids have benefited from having a great education and opportunity to travel, and so they are very lucky in that sense. Making sure that the visibility or the way people treat them is not unnatural, there are some challenges that come with that. So far, they have handled it well. You know, melinda is the one who deserves any, certainly almost all, the credit for the kids so far doing very well. You know, our kids, we have said to them that the money is going to the foundation, so they do not think of themselves as, sort of, aristocratic. David what do they say when you tell them that . Do they say, cant you give me a little bit or something . [laughter] they dont ask for some . Bill they will get a little bit. David how much money has your Foundation Given away today . Bill about 40 billion. David 40 billion . Bill yeah. We are now up to giving 6 billion a year. David so, finally, if people are watching now and say, alright, i want to do something about Climate Change, but i am just one person, i dont have the resources that bill gates does, what can any average person do that will have some impact on Climate Change, in your view . Bill well, certainly, they can take things like these new Meat Products or how they buy electricity, and they can help drive up the scale of the green solutions. The most important thing, at this stage, is their political voice. There is going to be a need to put substantial resources into this effort. And we will need a bipartisan solution. And to send the right signal to the market, you actually dont if you just win one year and then it gets repealed, that does not help at all. The key is let people see the policies will be, over the next 30 years, on a consistent basis. And that means it is a much higher bar than just a onetime victory. Good morning oh no, here comes the neighbor probably to brag about how amazing his Xfinity Customer Service is. Im mike, im so busy. Good thing xfinity has twohour appointment windows. They have night and weekend appointments too. Hes here. Bill . Karolyn . Nope no, just a couple of rocks. Download the my account app to manage your appointments making todays Xfinity Customer Service simple, easy, awesome. Ill pass. Brad he has spent almost his entire career as a finance chief, rising through the ranks at ge, and then working at ebay for nine years alongside meg whitman. After overseeing the ebaypaypal split, he joined intel as cfo in 2016. And, less than two years later, became interim ceo following the sudden resignation of his predecessor, brian krzanich. He was then chosen for the role permanently after the chipmaker conducted an extensive search. Today, its his job to protect
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