Beyond the ‘End of AIDS’: What comes after 2030?

'Ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030' has been one of the most powerful organising promises in global health, reshaping research, funding and policy. As the 2030 milestone approaches, however, this promise risks becoming a political end rather than an epidemiological or social success: a moment in which the problem is declared solved while the conditions that sustain the epidemic persist. This commentary critically examines how the 'End of AIDS' agenda has been produced and governed, and what is at stake in imagining what comes after 2030. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship and a 2025 roundtable, we identify four key dynamics that require critical consideration in shaping the next phase of the HIV response: the centrality of structural inequality, the limits of biomedical triumphalism, the influence of philanthrocapitalism in global health governance, and the role of metrics and targets as technologies of governance. We argue that post-2030 agendas must be collectively defined, grounded in equity, access, democratic governance and critical engagement with the narratives that have organised the epidemic to date.