Bill Gates Bio, Wiki, Age, Wife, Microsoft, Net Worth, Richest Man, Instagram

Bill Gates Biography

Bill Gates is an American business tycoon and philanthropist of English, German, and Irish/Scots-Irish descent known for co-founding Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsft, he has served in the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president, and chief software architect. With an estimated net worth of US$108.3 billion, he serves as the seventh-richest person in the world.

Bill Gates Age

Gates was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, United States. He is 67 years old as of 2022.

Bill Gates Height

Gates stand at an approximate height of 5 feet and 10 inches.

Bill Gates Family

Gates was born to William H. Gates Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. Unfortunately, both his parents passed away. His father served as a prominent lawyer while his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way of America. The couple had three kids counting Gates and two daughters firstborn, Kristianne, and lastborn sister Libby. His maternal grandfather, J. W. Maxwell, served as a national bank president. Regularly, his family attended a church of the Congregational Christian Churches, a Protestant Reformed denomination when he was younger.

Bill Gates Wife

Gates is very private about his personal life therefore it is not known if he is in any relationship. Prior to this, he exchanged vows with his ex-wife, Melinda French on the Hawaiian Island of Lanai on January 1st, 1994. Additionally, they met in 1987 when she went to serve Microsoft. The couple had three kids together; Jennifer Catherine, Rory John, and Phoebe Adele.

After their 27-year-long marriage and 34 years as a couple, the couple divorced in 2021. Following their divorce, Melinda attained $ 76 billion counting the transfer of at least $6 billion worth of shares in public companies to her. Catherine was born on April 26, 1996, and is 26 years old as of 2022. John was born on May 23, 1999, and is 23 years old as of 2022. Phoebe was born on September 14, 2002, and is 20 years old as of 2022.

Bill Gates Net Worth

Gates has an estimated net worth of between $104B which he has earned through his successful career as a business tycoon and philanthropist. Hence, making him the seventh-richest person in the world.

Bill Gates Education

Upon completion of his high school studies at Lakeside School in 1973 scoring 1590 out of 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT), he joined Harvard College in the autumn of 1973. Initially, he selected a pre-law major but later took mathematics counting Math 55 and graduate-level computer science courses. After two years, he left Havard in pursuit of his own company.

Bill Gates Career

When he was 13, he wrote his initial software program at the private Lakeside prep school. He had an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC, and he was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. Utilizing a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) he wrote his initial computer program. Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and his best friend and first business partner, Kent Evans, were banned from using a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC) after they were caught manipulating bugs in the operating system to get free computer time.

Further, the four raised money by forming the Lakeside Programmers Club. Later, they offered to find bugs in CCC’s software in exchange for additional computer time. Instead of remotely using the system via Teletype, he went to CCC’s offices and studied source code for several programs that ran on the system, counting Fortran, Lisp, and machine language. This arrangement with CCC progressed until 1970 when the company went out of business. Listed by a teacher in 1971, he and Evans automated the school’s class-scheduling system.

They did this in exchange for computer time and royalties. Diligently, the two served so as to have the program ready for their senior year. However, they couldn’t finish the system due to the unfortunate death of Evan because of a mountain climbing accident. Later, Gates alongside Allen finished the system for Lakeside. When he was 17, he alongside Allen created a business dubbed Traf-O-Data to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor. Additionally, he served as a congressional page in the House of Representatives in 1972.

Additionally, he has pursued numerous business and philanthropic endeavors. For instance, he serves as the founder and chairman of a number of companies. For instance, BEN, Cascade Investment, bgC3, and TerraPower. Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he has given sizable amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is alleged to be the world’s largest private charity.

Via the foundation, he head an early 21st-century vaccination campaign that importantly contributed to the expunging of the wild poliovirus in Africa. In 2010, Gates and Warren Buffett founded The Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy. On a side note, he loves bridges, tennis, and golf. Additionally, his days are scheduled on a minute-by-minute basis. In 1998, he allegedly gave $30 million for the original 1885 maritime painting Lost on the Grand Banks. Further, he revealed that he was color-blind in 2016.

Bill Gates Microsoft

Gates co-founded Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. During his career at Microsoft, he has served in the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president, and chief software architect. Also, he served as the largest individual shareholder until May 2014. In the 1970s and 1980s, he served as a major entrepreneur in the microcomputer revolution. Furthermore, he served as the company’s chairman and CEO till he resigned to serve as CEO in January 2000. Steve Ballmer succeeded him.

Even though he stepped down, he served as the chairman of the board of directors and served as a chief software architect. During the late 90s, due to his business tactics, he received criticism which was considered anti-competitive. In June 2008, he transitioned to a part-time role at Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the private charitable foundation he and his then-wife Melinda established in 2000. In February 2014, he resigned as s chairman of the board of Microsoft assuming a new post as technology adviser.

This happened in order to back the newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella. In March 2020, he left his board positions at Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to concentrate on his philanthropic endeavors on global health and development, climate change, and education.

Bill Gates Richest Man

Since 1987, Forbes counted him in its list of the world’s wealthiest people. From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world yearly except from 2010 to 2013. In October 2017, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos surpassed him with an estimated net worth of US$90.6 billion compared to Gates’s net worth of US$89.9 billion at the time. As of January 2023, he has an estimated net worth of US$108.3 billion, making him the seventh-richest person in the world.

Bill Gates Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

After studying the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, he donated some of his Microsoft stock in 1994 to create the “William H. Gates Foundation” In 2000, Je alongside and his ex-wife combined three family foundations with Gates donating stock valued at $5 billion to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Funds for NGOs company in 2013 identified the organization as the world’s wealthiest charitable foundation. The organization had alleged assets valued at more than $34.6 billion.

Unlike other big foundations, it permits benefactors to gain information that shows the spending of the money. Through this foundation, Gates donated $20 million to Carnegie Mellon University for a new building. After the opening of the building in 2009, the building was dubbed Gates Center for Computer Science. The foundation is arranged into five program regions: Global Health Division, Global Development Division, United States Division, and Global Policy & Advocacy Division.

The goal of the foundation is to supply 120 million women and girls, in the poorest countries, with high-quality contraceptive information and services, with the longer-term goal of universal access to voluntary family planning. As per Forbes, as of January 19th, 2003, he has donated over $59 billion to the Gates Foundation. This includes a $20 billion gift announced in July 2022. Even though the couple divorced, they still co-chair the charitable Gates Foundation.

Bill Gates’s Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

In a 2019 New York Times article, Gates’s relationship with the financier, Jeffrey Epstein began in 2011, just a few years after Epstein’s certainty for hustling a child for prostitution. Their relationship continued for some years counting a visit to Epstein’s house with Melinda in the fall of 2013. In 2011, he voiced that Epstein’s lifestyle differs from his and wouldn’t work for him. Even so, their relationship is ambiguous. Generally, Gates commented on their relationship, “I met him. I didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him.”

However, he visited Epstein numerous times despite his past. Allegedly, they talked about the Gates Foundation and philanthropy. However, in an interview in 2019 Gates completely repudiated any links between Epstein and the Gates Foundation or his philanthropy overall. In August 2021, Gates voiced that the reason for the meetings with Epstein was that he hoped Epstein could supply money for philanthropic work, though nothing came of the idea.

Additionally, Gates and Epstein met with Nobel Committee chair Thorbjørn Jagland at his residence in Strasbourg, France in March 2013. The purpose of the visit was to discuss the Nobel Prize. Also, representatives of the International Peace Institute which has attained millions in grants from the Gates Foundation, counting a $2.5 million “community engagement” grant in October 2013 attended the meeting.

Bill Gates House

The family’s residence is an earth-sheltered mansion on the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. In 2009, property taxes on the mansion were alleged to be US$1.063 million, on a total assessed value of US$147.5 million. Further, its a 66,000-square-foot (6,100 m2) estate that comprises a 60-foot (18 m) swimming pool with an underwater music system, a 2,500-square-foot (230 m2) gym, and a 1,000-square-foot (93 m2) dining room. Moreover, the ceiling of Gates’ large home library has an engraved quotation from The Great Gatsby.

Bill Gates Business Ventures and Investments

Gates has a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio with stakes in a number of sectors. Also, he has partaken in a number of entrepreneurial ventures beyond Microsoft, such as;

1. AutoNation, an automotive retailer attained a 16% stake in trading on the NYSE.
2. ResearchGate, a social networking site for scientists.
3. Impossible Foods, a company that develops plant-based substitutes for meat products.
4. EarthNow, a Seattle-based startup company aiming to blanket the Earth with live satellite video broadcasts.
5. Carbon Engineering, a for-profit venture founded by David Keith, which he aided in funding.
6. Canadian National Railway (CN), a Canadian Class I freight railway.

Bill Gates Books

As an ardent reader, Gates bought the Codex Leicester, a collection of scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. He bought the collection for US$30.8 million at an auction in 1994. During his career, Gates has authored a number of books such as;

1. The Road Ahead, written alongside Microsoft executive, Nathan Myhrvold, and journalist, Peter Rinearson(November 1995).
2. Business @ the Speed of Thought(1999)
3. How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (February 2021)
4. How to Prevent the Next Pandemic (April 2022)

Bill Gates Social Media Platforms

He is active on his social media accounts and is often seen posting on his Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. He has over 7.5M followers on Instagram.