Melinda French Gates criticised the new wealthy individuals for using their influence as a "megaphone" rather than being true philanthropists.

Speaking to The New York Times in a podcast, the ex-wife of Bill Gates said that Tesla CEO Elon Musk, PayPal founder Peter Thei, Twitter founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, and American hedge fund manager Bill Ackman have not contributed enough to be called philanthropists.

"Well, the people you just named have not been very philanthropic yet. They use their voice and they use their megaphones, but I would not call those men philanthropists," she said.

"Go look at their records of actually giving money to society. It is not big. Those are non-philanthropic, in my opinion," she added.

Additionally, she mentioned that the activities of her husband and Warren Buffet cannot be compared to the "super wealthy" of recent times.

"We have some wealthy people who choose to give the money back and some who don’t," she said.

The former Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair called Musk's comments on her political activism "silly."

"I knew I had to speak out in favour of women's rights, and if there was a candidate who is against women's rights and says terrible things about women, there is no way I could vote for that person," Gates said.

Earlier, Musk, 53, criticised her endorsement of Joe Biden for the forthcoming elections and called it the downfall of Western civilisation.

Nevertheless, the 59-year-old philanthropist stepped down as co-chair of the Gates Foundation while remaining committed to "people and organisations working on behalf of women and families around the world, including on reproductive rights in the United States."