The current Bill Gates net worth in 2021 is approximately $119.3 billion making him the fourth richest person in the world currently after Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Bernard Arnault & family according to Forbes.
Bill Gates founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975; it grew into the largest software company in the world through supplying personal computer companies with an operating system. Microsoft Corporation won the personal computer revolution of the 1980s by becoming the standard operating software for computer manufacturers.
Bill Gates was the world’s youngest self-made billionaire in history at the age of 31. Until in 2008, Mark Zuckerberg beat his record by becoming a billionaire at the age of 23 through his equity ownership stake in Facebook that he founded.
Through his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, CEO, and chief software architect. Microsoft was a leading stock during the late 1990’s Dot-Com bubble and one of the greatest performing stocks of all time up.
Bill Gates moved to a part-time role at Microsoft in June of 2006. His philanthropy lead him to work full-time at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation he founded with his wife in 2000. He transferred his Microsoft duties over time to Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie. In February 2014 he stepped down as chairman of Microsoft. He is now the Microsoft technology adviser and also mentors and guides CEO Satya Nadella.
Bill Gates became the first person with a 12-figure net worth in April 1999. During the peak of the Dot-Com bubble when Microsoft stock was at all time highs his net worth was greater than $100 billion. This would be approximately $150 billion inflation adjusted in 2020 dollars. Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates were the first two individuals to be worth over $100 billion in history.
From the years 1995 to 2017, Bill Gates was the richest person in the world according to Forbes in all but four of those years. After the resurgence of Microsoft stock he became the richest person in the world again from March 2014 to July 2017. His wealth was created by being the largest individual shareholder of Microsoft until May 2014. His net worth has been correlated to the performance of the Microsoft company.
Microsoft achieved its first $100 billion sales year in 2018. At the end of 2018 Microsoft was the most valuable company in the world and has been the most valuable off and on over the past two years.
Microsoft’s IPO was on Mar. 13, 1986. It’s original trading price was $21. The stock then split nine times over the years, with two of those 3-for-2 splits. One share of Microsoft stock at IPO, is now 288 shares after all nine splits. Those original shares would be worth $62,695 each at the current stock price of $217.69 adjusted for splits. Microsoft is up +231,000% since the IPO as of January 2021 after surging to new all time highs.
By January 2014, Bill Gates’ had the majority of his assets held with Cascade Investment LLC which is an American holding and investment company. Bill Gates maintains control of the assets held at Cascade and Michael Larson manages it. Over half of Gates’ net worth is held in assets besides Microsoft stock. Cascade Investment LLC holds ownership stakes in several publicly traded companies through stock and also owns equity in some private companies.
Bill Gates has sold most of his Microsoft stock over the years and donated over $35.8 billion of his shares to charity, most to his foundation. He now personally owns approximately 1% of the total outstanding Microsoft shares. His remaining 1% ownership is worth approximately $16.5 billion as of 2021.
Bill Gates is leaving a $10 million inheritance to each of his three children. He wants each of his children to have the motivation and opportunity to succeed through their own efforts. He is leaving the majority of his wealth to his foundation to fight childhood death, malnutrition, and global warming.
