Gates Foundation to spend $1.27 billion to expand AI access to poor, remote communities

: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Gates Foundation chief executive Mark Suzman said the foundation will look at how AI can be applied in education and agriculture to narrow inequalities. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG Audrey Tan Updated Sep 15, 2026, PM Set as preferred source Listen SINGAPORE – The Gates Foundation, a philanthropic organisation backed , pledged on Sept 15 to spend at least US$1 billion (S$1.27 billion) globally over the next two years on expanding access to artificial intelligence.  With the foundation having opened its Singapore office in May, chief executive Mark Suzman told The Straits Times that it is looking into how more people in the region, especially those from lower-income and rural areas, could benefit from using AI in areas such as education, agriculture and health. The annual report takes stock of the world’s progress on issues such as ending poverty and reducing inequalities. The latest edition highlights the need to ensure that AI is used to narrow gaps between the richest and poorest, not widen them.  “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,” Bill Gates, chairman of the foundation, noted in the report.  “AI presents the same challenge, only at much greater speed. Left to the market alone, the most capable tools will be built first for the people and institutions most able to pay for them – not necessarily for those who could benefit most.”  Of the US$1 billion sum, 40 per cent will go to education, such as AI tutoring initiatives, said the Gates Foundation in a statement.  Another 40 per cent will go towards healthcare, which could include the development of tools that can help in the discovery of new drugs and vaccines. A further 10 per cent will be for agriculture, supporting efforts to give smallholder farmers AI-generated advice customised to their soil, weather and crop conditions, for instance.  The remaining 10 per cent will fund initiatives to help build the digital foundation needed for equitable AI access. This could include ensuring that datasets in languages not yet understood .   The report cited MahaVISTAAR, a free AI advisory service for farmers rolled out , as an example of an AI tool that can benefit smallholder farmers.  Through an app, voice calls and chat, farmers can ask questions about their crops, the weather, and pest management in their own language and get verified, localised answers, the report noted.