Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are the top two richest individuals in the world. Do you know that Bill Gates could have become richer than both of them combined if he hadn’t accepted these two deals? Find out everything about it now.
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft was once the richest man. At present, he is surpassed by 3 individuals younger in age and experience due to three major reasons.
Bills Gates Sold His Microsoft Shares
Gates owned around $2.06 billion worth of shares in Microsoft. He sold the majority of them before leaving the Microsoft group as a member of the board in 2020 to focus on philanthropism. Bill Gates had been the sole owner of these stocks since 1998 when the company surpassed Apple Inc taking up first place. The sale of these shares is the first and foremost reason behind Gates’ dwindling rank on the Forbes list.
Bill Could Have Been Richer than Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos Combined
- A. True
- B. False
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Yet another reason for Gates’ reduced net assets is due to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This is the second-largest charity foundation in the world and Gates donated around $36 billion to support it in 2018. The foundation was established in 2000 as a merger between Gates learning Foundation and William H. Gates Foundation. The UN’s chief food director mentioned that 2% of Elon Musk’s wealth could reduce world hunger, saving 42 million people from death caused by starvation. He also added that this could be achieved even if the world billionaires contributed 0.36% of their wealth.
Bills Gates and Melinda French’s Divorce
This is the largest and the costliest disunion in the history of divorces. Melinda French was paid $60+ billion as alimony post their divorce. Melinda applied for divorce primarily because she didn’t approve of Bill’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire pedophile. There were also rumors regarding Bill’s extramarital affairs. The alimony had considerably reduced Bill Gates’ ranking on the richest man list.
Jeff Bezos faced the same predicament after he divorced Mckenzie Scott in 2019. But he was able to bounce back from the loss with his space missions and Amazon’s ever-increasing market price.