Bill Gates
American businessman and philanthropist (born 1955)
Summary
William Henry Gates III is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Following Microsoft's initial public offering in 1986 and the subsequent increase in its stock price, Gates became the world's then-youngest billionaire in 1987, at age 31. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's wealthiest person for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years consecutively from 1995 to 2007. Gates became the first centibillionaire in 1999, when his net worth briefly surpassed US$100 billion. According to Forbes, as of February 2026, his net worth stood at US$107.7 billion, making him the 18th-wealthiest individual in the world.
Originally created by Pinkunicorn
5/15/2001, 8:34:36 PM
Modified
6/5/2026, 10:12:11 PM
Recent revisions
cursive text and link for "de facto"
/* Personal life */ more transparent link to avoid [[MOS:EGG]]
/* */ more transparent link to avoid [[MOS:EGG]]
/* */ added an invisible comment in lead
/* Wealth */ cursive name; see its own article title
lead is intended to summarize the article and therefore doesn't have to include refs. for statements sourced in the article body
/* */ not clear why this ref. is needed here when the sentence explicitly refers to Forbes, which is already cited
ref showing he appeared in 2 of the photos with Epstein
/* 2025 climate memo */
/* Connection with Jeffrey Epstein */ en dash
Add public domain photo of Gates from the 80s
/* Wealth */
/* Wealth */
/* Further reading */
Removing from [[Category:People named in the Epstein files]] per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2026_May_8#Category:People_named_in_the_Epstein_files using [[c:Help:Cat-a-lot|Cat-a-lot]]
Reformat 1 archive link; Move 1 url. [[User:GreenC/WaybackMedic_2.5|Wayback Medic 2.5]] per [[WP:URLREQ#money.cnn.com]]
/* Early life and education */ No longer called standardized aptitude test
restoring [[:Category:American people of English descent]] per [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2026 April 9#Category:American people of English descent]]
Added to Category:People named in the Epstein files
/* Documentary films about Gates */ url-status=dead
