William Henry Gates III  (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and the co-founder and chairman of Microsoft. He is the third-richest person in the world behind Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in net worth as of January 2021.

Early life 
William Henry Gates III was born on October 28, 1955 at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, U.S.  He has British and German ancestry. His father William H. Gates, Sr. was a lawyer. His mother Mary Maxwell Gates served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way. His parents wanted him to be a lawyer. At the age of 13, Bill went to Lakeside High School.

College career and the Founding of Microsoft 
He was a freshman at Harvard University in 1973. He left Harvard to make software.  Bill Gates saw an opportunity to transform the personal computer, which was expensive and difficult to use.  He decided that computers could be made less expensive and easier to use.  Gates started Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gates then went on to develop the Windows operating system, which at first wasn't well-received but with time became the most used operating system in the world.

Retirement, philanthropy and charity work 
In 2006, Gates announced he was going to quit his job at Microsoft. This was so he could do more charity work with his wife, Melinda. Their charity is called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates' philanthropy projects have included vaccination of children in sub-Saharan Africa, scholarship programs in the United States, and a mission to help organize other billionaires to redistribute their wealth. He likes to give money and support to human rights, education, and technological innovation.

Gates stepped down from his CEO position in Microsoft in 1998 and Steve Ballmer did the job instead. On June 16, 2007, Microsoft said that Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, will come in on a day-to-day schedule to continue working with his charity organization full-time for the years to come. On 2014, Satya Nadella became the new CEO of Microsoft and Bill Gates came back as the Chief Technology Adviser.

He was awarded an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005 for his services to philanthropy and charity. As an American citizen, he cannot be called "Sir Bill Gates", but can use the letters "KBE" after his name.

Melinda French divorced with Bill Gates since May 3, 2021. Even though they divorced, they stated that they will keep working on charity events.

Net worth 
In 1986, Gates took Microsoft public. The company's stock was worth $520 million. Gates owned 45 percent of the stock himself, which was worth $234 million. The company continued its rapid growth and the stock price soared. At one point, Gates' stock was worth over $100 billion. This made him the richest man in the world, until October 2017, when Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos became even richer than him.

He was the richest man in the world. In October 2017, his net worth was surpassed by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Bezos had 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 2021, Gates had an estimated net worth of US$163 billion, making him the third-richest person in the world. And now, he is the third-richest person in the world behind Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in net worth as of January 2021.

Related pages 
 Steve Jobs, founder of Apple
 Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook
 Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon

References

Other websites 
 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

1955 births
Living people
American agnostics
American billionaires
American chief executives
American philanthropists
 
Harvard University alumni
Microsoft people
Writers from Seattle, Washington
Businesspeople from Seattle, Washington
Recipients of the Order of the Aztec Eagle
Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun
Time People of the Year
American company founders
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire