Bill Gates Net Worth – How Rich Are He Really?
How rich is Bill Gates?
American computer programmer, investor, and author Bill Gates counts with one Assets of 122.44 billion euros to the richest people in the world. Bill Gates could actually be the richest man in the world again, but he is charitable and donates a lot of his wealth. He says himself that he doesn’t care if he ever disappears from the lists of the richest people in the world. He will continue to move money into his foundation, thus shrinking his own fortune. But we are sure that he will be considered one of the richest people in the world for a long time to come, even if he donates a lot. Due to various investments and many other commitments, Bill Gates will also be one in the current year high income recorded, although the divorce from his wife Melinda in 2021 consumed a lot of resources.
How it all started
The founder of the popular computer company Microsoft was already the richest person in the world between 1995 and 2009. From November 2013 Bill Gates was again at the top of the richest people, but then Amazon boss Jeff Bezos replaced him as the richest person in the world for a full 6 hours on July 27, 2017. On October 27, 2017, Gates had to finally vacate the throne for the Amazon boss.
He broke off his studies at Harvard in order to concentrate entirely on the development of his software company. He then wrote history as a programmer and businessman. The Windows operating system is inextricably linked with his name, he is at the top of the list of the world’s richest people. He founded the software company in 1975, but Gates left in 2008 to focus more on charity. It revolves around the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which Bill supports with many billions of US dollars and wants to help people in the third world. Overall would be x.
One of the Richest People in the World – How Much Money Does Bill Gates Really Have?
With a reported assets of 122.44 billion euros the former software tinkerer broke the $ 100 billion mark a long time ago. If you follow the developments of the last few years, the trend is clear. In just 5 years, between 2009 and 2014, Gates more than doubled his fortune, from $ 40 billion to $ 82 billion. The entrepreneur was able to continue to increase his assets precisely because of the increased share price of Microsoft. Between 2013 and 2014 alone, it added 15 billion dollars – 1.5 billion more than Iceland’s 2014 gross domestic product. He overtook his Mexican list rivals Carlos Slim Helo and Warren Buffett once again. Other tech founders such as Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin or Elon Musk can also be found in the top 20.
How much does Bill Gates earn?
If Bill Gates were to put his fortune in a bank account, which is assumed to have 3% interest, he would earn 8 million euros every day. That would be 336,000 euros per hour, 5,613 euros per minute and 93 euros per second. Yes you read that right: Bill Gates earns 93 euros per second. This is of course a purely hypothetical assumption, because the richest man in the world has invested his money a little better and not lying around in the bank account, more on that below.
From college dropout to billionaire company Microsoft
Bill Gates was named William Henry Gates III born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle. The addition to the name is of a genealogical nature: Although he was the fourth William in the family history, since his father has the addition II, the son consequently received the III. William H. Gates II worked successfully as a lawyer. Mother Mary Maxwell-Gates taught in the 1950s and later served on the boards of several large companies. The family’s ancestors come from England, Germany, Ireland and Scotland. Bill Gates has two sisters, Kristianne and Libby.
Bill Gates and his talents as a programmer
Already in school he stood out for his special talent in the natural sciences and mathematics. At the age of 13 he attended the exclusive, secondary Lakeside School in Seattle. In eighth grade he began programming a General Electrics school computer in BASIC. His first program on the device: a digital version of Tic Tac Toe (“Three wins”). As a schoolboy he gained further experience with other programming languages on larger and more powerful computers. Bill also co-founded Gates while at school School friend Paul Allen the company Traf-O-Data. An exclusively developed program for measuring traffic flows brought the young entrepreneurs a proud $ 20,000.
The course, which began in 1973 at the prestigious Harvard University, suffered from Gates’ independent computer activities. He sometimes fell asleep in the math seminars – a consequence of the extra night shifts that laid the foundation for Microsoft. In 1975 he broke off his studies and, together with his former classmate and fellow student Allen, concentrated entirely on Microsoft Corporation, which was founded in the same year. The company developed the MS-DOS operating system for IBM in the early 1980s, but without relinquishing the copyright to IBM. With the success of IBM, Microsoft and Bill Gates – as “the man behind the machine” – became increasingly well known. MS-DOS a graphical user interface was added: Microsoft Windows was born. The first retail version (Windows 1.0) came out on November 20, 1985 and began to revolutionize the world of home computers.
Assets and Activities Outside Microsoft:
Stock sales and donations from Bill Gates
In spring 2014 Bill Gates sold 4.6 million Microsoft action valued at around $ 186 million. He ceded his position as the largest single shareholder to his business partner and former CEO Steve Ballmer, who now owns the largest share of shares in the group. As early as 2006, Gates announced that he wanted to gradually withdraw from Microsoft’s day-to-day business. Although he is still active as a businessman and entrepreneur, he is also increasingly involved in charitable causes. In August 2017, he sold an additional 64 million shares for a total of $ 4.6 billion, which were immediately donated.
Cascade Investment, L. L C.
Half of Bill Gates’ fortune is now in the investment company Cascade Investment, LLC, founded in 1994 and headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. Michael Larson, 56, is the manager, CIO and asset manager of Gates. Since former bond fund manager Larson ran the company, Bill Gates’ net worth has grown from $ 5 billion to around $ 87 billion. Through Cascade, Gates holds shares in companies such as the beverage company Coca-Cola, the agricultural machinery manufacturer Deere & Company or AutoNation, the largest dealer for new and used vehicles in the USA.
Social commitment through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation emerged in 1999 from a foundation that had existed since 1994. In addition to Bill Gates, his wife Melinda, with whom he has been married since 1994, is the namesake. In addition, with around 1,000 employees and a foundation capital of over 50 billion dollars, the foundation is the largest private foundation in the world. Above all, agricultural and medical projects are funded worldwide.
Berkshire Hathaway
Thanks to a generous donation from multi-billionaire Warren Buffett, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation owns 82 million shares in Berkshire Hathaway Holding, valued at $ 10.5 billion. Buffett announced in 2006 until his death Donate 85% of his total assets to the foundation to want. Bill Gates is also a member of the Berkshire Hathaway Board of Directors.
The Giving Pledge
In August 2010, Bill Gates co-founded The Giving Pledge with Melinda and Warren Buffett. The goal is to have so many Advocate billionaires as possible to donate half of your fortune to charity. The membership list is populated with prominent entrepreneurs from all countries.
Startups
In addition to the aforementioned, Bill Gates is also involved in other companies and, most recently, in the establishment of companies. For example, Aquion Energy, developer of innovative battery technology, received 55 million dollars. Another $ 35 million went to the German startup Researchgate, a social network for researchers with 2 million members worldwide. The so-called think tank exists for such investments. bgC3, an acronym for Bill Gates Catalyst 3. The company was founded in 2008 to promote advanced scientific, engineering and medical projects.
Bill Gates’ personal life
Since 1994 Bill has been married to the programmer Melinda French. Melinda was the project manager of the Microsoft Bob operating system add-on at the time she met Bill. Together they have a son Rory John and two daughters, Jennifer Katharine and Phoebe Adele. The family lives together in a great property in Medina, on Lake Washington. The luxury villa has a living space of 6100 square meters. Of course there is a lot of high-tech built into it. The construction time was a proud 7 years, but the dream house is now exactly as Bill Gates wanted it to be. The artwork was designed by architect James Cutler. The Gates Villa also has a name: “Xanadu 2.0”. Bill Gates’ luxurious home is now worth more than $ 120,000,000. He pays $ 1,000,000 in real estate tax annually.
Image sources:
Away! + PhotoXPress / PR Photos
Melinda and Bill Gates: Kjetil Ree [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Bill Gates Luxury Mansion: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffwilcox/ [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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American computer programmer, investor, and author Bill Gates counts with one Assets of 122.44 billion euros to the richest people in the world. Bill Gates could actually be the richest man in the world again