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Bill Gates helped usher in huge changes in personal technology with software firm Microsoft; now he's focused on giving away his massive fortune.
Gates, a computer enthusiast from a young age, dropped out of Harvard to cofound Microsoft with Paul Allen (d. 2018) in 1975, hoping to capitalize on the spread of personal computers.
After Gates donated Microsoft shares worth billions to the trust that funds the Gates Foundation in 2022, his Microsoft stake is now less than 1%, Forbes estimates.
In 2021, Bill and Melinda Gates each announced they were ending their marriage after 27 years. He is now the sole chairman of the charitable Gates Foundation.
Gates, who's donated more than $59 billion to the Gates Foundation, announced in May 2025 that the foundation will shut down in 20 years.
Gates has spent nearly two decades and more than $1 billion supporting a nuclear power company,Terrapower, that is aiming to complete its first reactor by 2030.
Gates took a break from classes his senior year in high school to do programming with his friend Paul Allen at a power plant in North Bonneville, Washington.