What if Bill Gates kept his Microsoft shares?
If he had preserved these shares, they would be valued at over $500 billion today. However, Gates's approach to wealth has been markedly different.
Bill Gates still owns more than 1% of Microsoft's shares, worth around twenty billion dollars. Gates has a lot of his financial investments held by a family office known as Cascade Investments. He also has substantial real estate holdings and an extensive collection of collectibles.
- Institutional investors are the majority owners of Microsoft, accounting for almost 70% of outstanding shares.
- Former CEO Steve Ballmer owns a 4% stake in Microsoft, more than its founder Bill Gates, who holds a 1.3% stake.
- Vanguard and Blackrock are the two largest Microsoft's institutional investors.
| STOCK | % OF PORTFOLIO | MARKET VALUE OF SHARES |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) | 34% | $14.4 billion |
| Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B) | 16.8% | $7.1 billion |
| Canadian National Railway Co. (CNI) | 16.3% | $6.9 billion |
| Waste Management Inc. (WM) | 14.9% | $6.3 billion |
Most of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation portfolio is invested in just five stocks: Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK. A) (NYSE: BRK. B), Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE: CNI), Waste Management (NYSE: WM), and Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT).
Diversification is a key strategy in Gates' financial playbook. He recommends spreading your investments across various asset classes such as stocks, bonds, and real estate. Diversification helps to mitigate risk and ensure your financial stability in the long run.
On August 6, 1997, Bill Gates led Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple in exchange for shares in the company. Apple's share price at that time was just about $0.2–$0.3. So, Microsoft received 150,000 shares of preferred stock in exchange for its $150 million investment.
The top shareholders of Microsoft are Satya Nadella, Bradford L. Smith, Jean-Philippe Courtois, Vanguard Group Inc., BlackRock Inc. (BLK), and State Street Corp.
Largest shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc, State Street Corp, VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, VFINX - Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares, Geode Capital Management, Llc, Fmr Llc, Morgan Stanley, and Price T Rowe Associates Inc /md/ .
1. Vanguard Group. Vanguard Group, the world's second-largest asset manager, is Apple's largest shareholder among institutional investors. It holds 1.299 billion Apple shares, which is 8.36% of Apple's total common stock outstanding.
How does Bill Gates have so much cash?
Bill Gates is a millionaire thousands of times over: As of February 2024, Forbes reported his net worth at over $123 billion, most of which came from his position as the largest individual shareholder of Microsoft, which he started with Paul Allen in 1975.
As of September 2021, Gates' net worth is estimated to be around $125 billion. If his fortune were converted to gold, he would have approximately 2,500 metric tons of the metal. That's equivalent to about two Olympic-sized swimming pools filled with gold.
- Canadian National Railway Company. The largest holding in the Foundation's portfolio is Canadian National Railway Company (CNI). ...
- Microsoft Corp. Microsoft Corp. ( ...
- Waste Management, Inc. Waste Management, Inc. ( ...
- Berkshire Hathaway. ...
- Coupang Inc.
Inspired by the January cover of Popular Electronics magazine, friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft – sometimes Micro-Soft, for microprocessors and software – to develop software for the Altair 8800, an early personal computer.
Mark Zuckerberg Made Around $9.6 Million Per Hour Or $230.6 Million Per Day In 2023 — His Major Investments Include A 30-Bedroom/Bathroom Compound And Beer-Drinking Wagyu Cattle. Meta Platforms Inc.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has invested in Perplexity, which can challenge Google. It works as a chatbot-style search engine that responds to queries using OpenAI's GPT technology. It has been reported that it produces a direct text response to questions, rather than website links, using information from online sources.
In July 2022, Gates said he planned to give “virtually all” of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to a post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter. His message came as the foundation revealed a new plan to increase yearly spending “from nearly $6 billion to $9 billion annually by 2026.”
Buffett, who is 93, and Gates 68, have been longtime friends for 30 years. Through business ventures that turned philanthropic, they have assisted countless people worldwide. Together they launched The Giving Pledge campaign encouraging other rich individuals to donate much of their wealth towards charitable efforts.
- Elon Musk. Elon Musk is the come at top in list of most richest person in the world. ...
- Larry Ellison. ...
- Bernard Arnault. ...
- Larry Page. ...
- Bill Gates. ...
- Warren Buffett. ...
- Steve Ballmer. ...
- Sergey Brin.
Originally Answered: Will Apple ever buy out Microsoft? No, The biggest reason would be that it would create a monopoly, and there are some very strict anti-trust laws that prohibit that. If Apple and Microsoft merged they would control the operating software for about 98% of the computers on the planet.
Did Microsoft really save Apple?
In August 1997, Microsoft purchased $150 million of non-voting Apple stock. Additionally, Microsoft agreed to continue developing software such as Microsoft Office for the Mac platform for at least 5 years. Microsoft's infusion of cash helped stabilize Apple's finances.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) recently overtook Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) as the world's most valuable company. As of this writing, Microsoft's market cap has reached $2.89 trillion and remains higher than Apple's market cap of $2.87 trillion.
U.S. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Windows.
Microsoft is the largest company in the world, with a market cap of $2.95 trillion. It's followed by Apple($2.85 trillion), Saudi Arabian Oil ($2.00 trillion), Alphabet ($1.77 trillion), and Amazon ($1.60 trillion).
Who owns the Microsoft Corporation? The Microsoft Corporation is owned by its shareholders. Currently, the largest shares are owned by Vanguard and BlackRock, two other companies.
