Bill Gates: Co-founder of Microsoft and Chair of the Gates Foundation
Business Owner · Information Technology
Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft in 1975, became a billionaire at 31 and, after leaving day-to-day management, turned to global health and climate work through the Gates Foundation and Breakthrough Energy.
About Bill Gates: Co-founder of Microsoft and Chair of the Gates Foundation
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist and a pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Born and raised in Seattle, he was educated at Lakeside School, where he befriended Paul Allen and developed his interest in computing. In 1973 he enrolled at Harvard University, taking classes including Math 55 and graduate-level computer science, but dropped out in 1975 to co-found Microsoft with Allen. Gates served as Microsoft's CEO for 25 years and became president and chairman when the company was incorporated in 1981. After Microsoft's 1986 initial public offering he became the world's then-youngest billionaire in 1987, at age 31. Steve Ballmer succeeded him as CEO in 2000, and Gates moved to chief software architect until 2008. He stepped down as chairman in 2014, became technology adviser to CEO Satya Nadella, and resigned from the board in 2020. Forbes ranked him the world's wealthiest person for 18 of the 24 years from 1995 to 2017, and he became the first centibillionaire in 1999. He gradually shifted focus to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private charitable organization, which he co-chaired with Melinda French Gates from 2000 until 2024, targeting health, education and poverty alleviation and working to combat tuberculosis, malaria and polio. After French Gates resigned as co-chair following their divorce, the foundation was renamed the Gates Foundation, with Gates as sole chair. He also founded or chairs BEN, Cascade Investment, TerraPower, Gates Ventures and Breakthrough Energy. As of July 2026 Forbes put his net worth at US$106.5 billion. Sources: English Wikipedia (Bill Gates, accessed September 2026).
Basic Information
Co-founder, Microsoft; chair, Gates Foundation; founder, Breakthrough Energy
Company Details
Microsoft / Gates Foundation
Software, Philanthropy, Clean Energy
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