Today OpenAI and the Gates Foundation announced Horizon 1000, a partnership committing $50 million in funding, technology, and technical support to strengthen primary care in 1,000 African clinics and their communities, starting in Rwanda. It's a pragmatic bet: bringing AI capabilities that already exist into everyday healthcare, not just labs or demos.
What Horizon 1000 is and why it matters
The initiative aims to close the gap between what AI can do today and what people actually experience in health services. The goal is clear and measurable: support 1,000 primary care centers by 2028, with resources to deploy tools, train teams, and evaluate outcomes.
Bill Gates, in the editorial accompanying the announcement, reminds us that AI can be a scientific marvel — and the challenge is turning it into a social marvel by improving people’s lives.
Why now? Because primary care is the foundation of resilient health systems, and yet it remains inaccessible to half the world. In sub-Saharan Africa there's an estimated shortfall of about 5.6 million health workers, which puts enormous pressure on those on the front lines.
