(NewsNation) — For 18 years, Bill Gates’ name was always among the 10 richest people on the planet. That was until this week.

Gates lost 30% of his wealth — equaling $51-52 billion — due to his philanthropic spending, dropping him to 12th place among his peers. The Microsoft co-founder was replaced by Steve Ballmer, his former assistant, for the fifth-richest man in the world.

“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” said Gates. “There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.”

In early July, Gates was worth a fortune of $175 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.

Gates still owns around 1% of Microsoft, while receiving nearly $60 billion in stocks and dividends from the company.

Gates previously said he would donate almost all of his wealth to his foundation that he started with his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, which is set to close by 2045.