Bill Gates beats Jeff Bezos as world's richest man (again)
He's now worth $110 billion.
Bill Gates, the world's richest man.
Bill Gates stopped working full-time at Microsoft in 2008 and stepped down as chairman in 2014. Over the course of nearly two decades, Gates has shifted his focus from personal computers to philanthropy. Yet despite easing his workload at Microsoft and his dedication to giving away money, Bill Gates is once again the world's richest person.
As of Nov. 16, Gates has a net worth of $110 billion, according to Bloomberg. Gates narrowly unseated Amazon head Jeff Bezos , who's worth approx. $109 billion. Since 2008, Gates has at various times been out-earned by the likes of Bezos, investor Warren Buffett and Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim.
Despite having sold around $35 billion in Microsoft stock to fund the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the tech icon still owns a huge amount of Microsoft stocks. Bloomberg chalks up his recent windfall in net worth to Microsoft winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract and a corresponding boost to the company's stock price.
The stock price was at $136 on June 22, and now stands at just under $150.
Bezos' net worth has taken two hits in recent months, as he lost billions following Amazon's underperformance in quarter three and many billions more -- around $35 billion -- to his now ex-wife, Mackenzie Bezos.
Ironically, the last time Gates made headlines was when he, speaking at the New York Times DealBook conference, questioned Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's proposed expanded wealth tax.
You and the other candidates are having a really interesting conversation on how to solve some of the world’s toughest problems like eliminating global poverty and avoiding a climate disaster (though those issues don’t get talked about as much as they should).
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) November 7, 2019
"I've paid over $10 billion in taxes, I've paid more than anyone in taxes. If I had to pay $20 billion, it's fine," Gates said, "but when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I'm starting to do a little math over what I have left over."
Gates also said he wasn't sure if Warren is open-minded or would "even be willing to sit down with somebody who has large amounts of money."
"I'm always happy to meet with people, even if we have different views," Warren tweeted at Gates later that day. "If we get the chance, I'd love to explain exactly how much you'd pay under my wealth tax. (I promise it's not $100 billion.)"
The first time Gates was named richest person in the world was 1995 -- when he had a net worth of $12.9 billion.
