Bill Gates
October 28, 1955 — Seattle, Washington, United States
Bill Gates is an American businessman and philanthropist who co-founded Microsoft, the software company that helped spark the personal computer revolution. He became the world's youngest self-made billionaire in 1987 and, for decades, one of the wealthiest people on the planet. In recent years, Gates has redirected much of his fortune and attention toward global health and development through his philanthropic work.
Early Life and Education
William Henry Gates III was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, into a well-off family with a father who was a prominent lawyer and a mother who served on several corporate boards. From a young age, Gates showed a talent for mathematics and an early fascination with computers, which were still rare and expensive machines confined mostly to universities and large corporations. At Lakeside School, a private prep school in Seattle, he gained access to a computer terminal and began programming as a teenager, spending countless hours writing code and experimenting with early software. It was at Lakeside that Gates met Paul Allen, a fellow student who shared his passion for computing and would later become his business partner. Gates went on to attend Harvard University, where he continued to develop his programming skills and business ideas, but he never completed his degree. Recognizing the potential of the microcomputer revolution then taking shape, he left Harvard in 1975 to pursue a business opportunity with Allen, a decision that set the stage for one of the most influential technology companies in history.
Founding Microsoft and Rise to Prominence
In 1975, Gates and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft, a company built around the idea that software, not just hardware, would be central to the future of computing. Microsoft's early breakthrough came through licensing agreements with IBM, most notably providing the operating system that would become MS-DOS for IBM's first personal computers in the early 1980s. As personal computers proliferated through the 1980s, Microsoft's software, including the Windows operating system introduced in 1985, became the dominant platform used by consumers and businesses worldwide. Gates served as Microsoft's CEO and chief architect of its technical direction, driving aggressive business strategies that made the company a global powerhouse. Following Microsoft's initial public offering in 1986, the company's stock price soared, and Gates became the world's then-youngest billionaire in 1987 at age 31. His wealth continued to grow dramatically over the following decades. Forbes magazine ranked him the world's wealthiest person for 18 of the 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 consecutive years from 1995 to 2007. In 1999, his net worth briefly surpassed $100 billion, making him the first centibillionaire in history.
Did You Know?
Bill Gates never finished his degree at Harvard University—he dropped out in 1975 to co-found Microsoft with Paul Allen. Decades later, in 2007, Harvard awarded him an honorary doctorate, a fitting bookend to the education he left unfinished to build one of the world's most influential companies.
Philanthropy and Later Life
In 2000, Gates and his then-wife Melinda French Gates established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has grown into one of the largest private charitable organizations in the world. The foundation focuses on global health initiatives, including efforts to combat malaria, tuberculosis, and polio, as well as expanding access to vaccines, improving education, and reducing poverty in developing countries. Gates stepped back from his day-to-day role at Microsoft over the years, transitioning fully away from the company's board in 2020 to concentrate on philanthropic and humanitarian efforts. He has committed the majority of his fortune to charitable causes, joining fellow billionaires in pledges to give away most of his wealth during his lifetime or through his estate. As of July 2026, Forbes estimated his net worth at $106.5 billion, ranking him the 19th-wealthiest person in the world. Beyond his financial contributions, Gates has become an influential voice on issues ranging from pandemic preparedness to climate change, authoring books and funding research aimed at addressing some of humanity's most pressing challenges. His legacy spans both the technological transformation he helped engineer and the philanthropic model he has championed for using great wealth to address global problems.