Bill Gates won't join the space race. He wants to eradicate malaria and tuberculosis instead

(CNN) Some of the world's richest men are squaring off in what's become a rivalry for the ages -- the space race. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the two richest men on the planet and the CEOs of SpaceX and Blue Origin, respectively, have grand designs on the cosmos. They predict a universe where the internet is accessible from anywhere, humans are an interplanetary species, and rotating space stations host permanent residents.

But Bill Gates isn't putting his wealth into these off-planet endeavors.

Gates, the fourth richest person alive, according to Forbes, has what he considers higher aspirations right here on Earth. While internet constellations like SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's proposed Project Kuiper aim to bring for-profit fixes to the world's pressing connectivity issues, Gates told CNN's Becky Anderson on Wednesday that more basic problems consume his time now.

"The space race, a lot of that is a commercial market. Having great internet connections throughout Africa is a good thing. Using observation satellites to see what's going on with agriculture and climate change. So that's not philanthropically motivated altogether. I do hope that people who are rich will find ways to give their wealth back to society with high impact. Clearly, they've got skills. They can't, or shouldn't, want to consume it all themselves."

"Until we can get rid of malaria and tuberculosis, and all these diseases that are so terrible in poor countries, that's going to be my total focus," he said.