Bill Gates

Chairman, The Gates Foundation

$104.3B

$100.1M (-0.1%)

as of 12/05/25

About Bill Gates

Bill Gates helped usher in huge changes in personal technology with software firm Microsoft; now he's focused on giving away his massive fortune.

Gates, a computer enthusiast from a young age, dropped out of Harvard to cofound Microsoft with Paul Allen (d. 2018) in 1975, hoping to capitalize on the spread of personal computers.

After Gates donated Microsoft shares worth billions to the trust that funds the Gates Foundation in 2022, his Microsoft stake is now less than 1%, Forbes estimates.

In 2021, Bill and Melinda Gates each announced they were ending their marriage after 27 years. He is now the sole chairman of the charitable Gates Foundation.

Gates, who's donated more than $59 billion to the Gates Foundation, announced in May 2025 that the foundation will shut down in 20 years.

Personal stats

Citizenship

United States of America

Source of wealth

Microsoft

Residence

Medina, Washington

Marital status

Divorced

Birth date

10/28/55 (age 70)

Number of children

Education

Drop Out, Harvard University

Self-made

self-made

Bill Gates’s fortune is worth

troy ounces of gold

median U.S. household

median U.S. income

2.086%

U.S. credit card volume

0.417%

GDP of the United States

0.307%

United States debt

Net worth history

Annual ranking

Did you know?

Gates took a break from classes his senior year in high school to do programming with his friend Paul Allen at a power plant in North Bonneville, Washington.

Net worth over time

Real-time ranking

Financial assets

NASDAQ | ACGL-US

Arch Capital Group

NYSE | ARCO-US

Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc

NYSE | AN-US

AutoNation Inc.$1.5B

NYSE | BRK.A-US

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Cl A)$3.3B

NYSE | CNI-US

Canadian National Railway Co.$347.4M

NYSE | KOF-US

Coca-Cola FEMSA S.A.B de C.V.

NYSE | DE-US

Deere & Co$9.4B

NYSE | ECL-US

Ecolab$7.6B

NASDAQ | EVLV-US

Evolv Technologies Holdings$124.5M

NASDAQ | XCUR-US

Exicure

MADRID | FCC-ES

Fomento de Construcciones y Contrata$133M

NYSE | FMX-US

Fomento Economico Mex-SP ADR$2.8B

NYSE | DNA-US

Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings$35.1M

SIX SWISS | GIVN-CH

Givaudan S.A.$5B

MEXICO | TLEVISACPO-MX

Grupo Televisa S.A.B Unit Class A (TLEVISACPO-MX)

EURONEXT AMSTERDAM | HEIO-NL

Heineken Holding$543.6M

NASDAQ | MSFT-US

Microsoft$11.1B

EURONEXT AMSTERDAM | OCI-NL

OCI NV

EGYPT | OCIC-EG

Orascom Construction Industries S.A.

NASDAQ | OTTR-US

Otter Tail Corp.$244.2M

NYSE | RSG-US

Republic Services$23.8B

SIX SWISS | SIKA-CH

Sika

NYSE | RBOT-US

Vicarious Surgical$1.8M

US OTC | VRMMQ-US

Vroom

NYSE | WM-US

Waste Management