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Gates Foundation Trust Sells Off the Last of Its Microsoft Stock
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In the first quarter of 2026, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust sold its remaining Microsoft shares, fully exiting a position in the very company that created Gates's fortune — capping a long, deliberate diversification away from the stock. The endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy, managed separately from its grant-making through Cascade, is now anchored instead by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, railroads, and heavy-equipment makers. The sale underscored how thoroughly Gates's giving had decoupled from Microsoft's day-to-day fortunes.
Source: https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/05/25/billionaire-bill-gates-foundation-sold-its-microso/
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2026
Gates's Charitable Endowment Is Now Led by Berkshire, Not Microsoft
By 2026, the publicly disclosed stock portfolio of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust — the endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy — was led not by Microsoft but by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, Canadian National Railway, Caterpillar, and Deere. Decades of diversification, plus Warren Buffett's stock gifts, left it concentrated in railroads, waste, heavy equipment, and Buffett's conglomerate, while Microsoft — the source of the original fortune — had largely been sold down. The unglamorous, value-oriented mix reflects the long stewardship of Gates's money manager, Michael Larson, through Cascade Investment.
2026
Gates becomes 'much poorer' in 2026 as he accelerates giving and slips down the wealth rankings
Bill Gates's net worth fell sharply in 2026 as he accelerated his giving, with trackers noting he had become 'much poorer' — Forbes pegged him around $104 billion and 19th on its global ranking, down from his long reign near the top — as he transfers the bulk of his fortune to the Gates Foundation ahead of its 2045 closure. Gates has said he wants to give away about 99% of his wealth and does not want to be remembered as having 'died rich.' Differences between wealth trackers' methodologies, particularly how charitable pledges are counted, produced a wide range of estimates.
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