Did you read the article? They've been working towards this for a while, and likely would have started regardless: "Gates had last year announced his intention

Did you read the article? They've been working towards this for a while, and likely would have started regardless: "Gates had last year announced his intention to personally invest an additional $1 billion in clean energy technology. He was also among the 28 wealthy individuals and families signed on to the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group broadly committed to investing in this area. The new fund, which includes many of them, is a next, concrete step toward actually deploying their capital."