Bill Gates started Breakthrough Energy about 10 years before 2026.

True: dated records show Bill Gates founded or launched Breakthrough Energy (including the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, announced in November 2015) between about 2015 and 2017, which is roughly 10 years before January 2026. Mostly true: Gates was the founder, and the founding was 8 to 12 years before 2026. Mostly false: Gates co-founded it as one of several founders in a way that undercuts 'I started', or the founding date was more than 12 years earlier or less than 8 years earlier. False: Gates did not start Breakthrough Energy, or it was founded at a date far from the one claimed, for example within the last 5 years.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Tech billionaires team up for clean energy coalition at Paris climate talks Grist (reproducing a Guardian story, Climate Desk collaboration) · 1 December 2015

   “The Breakthrough Energy Coalition, made up of more than 25 investors from 10 countries, launched in Paris on Monday as part of the U.N. talks where nations are thrashing out an agreement”

2. E2 Gates Leads Big Investors and UC in New Climate Effort Institutional Investor · 22 December 2015

   “Led by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the group, comprising 28 deep-pocketed individuals and the University of California, pledged to invest more than $2 billion over the next five years”

3. E3 Bill Gates on getting billionaires behind clean energy Marketplace (American Public Media) · 23 February 2016

   “And Bill Gates, the Coalition’s founder, is writing about it in his yearly letter to followers of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”

4. E4 Breakthrough Energy Ventures - Gates Notes Gates Notes (Bill Gates) · 12 December 2016 Own record

   “We formed the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and institutional investors committed to help bring promising new zero-emissions energy technologies to market.”

A news report from December 2015 says the Breakthrough Energy Coalition launched in Paris during the UN climate talks (E1). That is about 10 years before January 2026. Independent outlets say Gates led the coalition (E2) and call him its founder (E3). More than 25 investors belonged to the coalition, but no source names anyone else as a founder, so that does not undercut "I started" under the criteria.