Bill Gates Net Worth: World’s Richest Human Being

As of 12/13/16 the Bill Gates net worth total of $83 billion makes him the world’s richest person, with more money than 38 countries around the globe. He got his money by creating something that brings value to almost everyone who buys it. People like LeBron James get rich because they’re great at basketball and they can sell something that almost everyone wants: sneakers. Gates took that ten giant steps further and filled an unmet need that people didn’t even know they had. The tables and charts below tell the story in black and white.

Bill Gates Net Worth Facts

Bill Gates Net Worth Facts
Bill Gates net worth$83,050,000,000
Bill Gates net worth vs Bill Clinton net worth1,051 times bigger
Bill Gates net worth vs Mark Zuckerberg net worth13 times bigger
Bill Gates net worth vs Donald Trump net worth14 times bigger
Bill Gates net worth vs Tiger Woods net worth101 times bigger
Bill Gates net worth vs Jay Z net worth150 times bigger
Bill Gates net worth vs LeBron James net worth372 times bigger
Bill Gates net worth vs Taylor Swift net worth269 times bigger
Bill Gates net worth vs Hillary Clinton net worth2,595 times bigger
Bill Gates net worth vs typical American family net worth1,221,324 times bigger

Bill Gates is richer than, well, everyone. The Bill Gates net worth sum is even five times bigger than the net worth of the King of Saudi Arabia at $17 billion. Think Bill Clinton is rich? The former President has an estimated net worth of $88 million. Gates’ wealth is 1,051 times bigger. Gates has 13 times more money than Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at $6.5 billion and 14 times more than presidential hopeful Donald Trump at $5.9 billion. Tiger Woods is very rich, with a fortune of $825 million, but Bill Gates’ net worth is still 101 times that amount. Gates has 150 times more wealth than rapper and businessman Jay Z with $554 million and 372 times more than NBA superstar LeBron James with $223 million. The Microsoft founder’s riches outstrip pop star Taylor Swift’s $309 million net worth by 269 times. Hillary Clinton has a net worth of $32 million and that makes Gates 2,595 times richer. Stacked up against mere mortals, Gates’ net worth isn’t even on the same graph. The typical American family has $68,000 saved, giving Gates 1.2 million times more money.

Bill Gates Net Worth Timeline

Related: Donald Trump Net Worth

Bill Gates Net Worth by Year

Bill Gates Net WorthThe chart above shows the full Bill Gates net worth story by year. It’s possible to trace the tech lord’s career by looking at that fluctuating (but growing) green line. Early success in the first ten years looks flat, but is actually a growth path to $1.5 billion in net worth that would dwarf the financial success of almost anyone else alive. The years from ’96 through 2008 show rampant growth and dominance of Microsoft Windows as the OS of choice in the business world and the world at large.

On 12/13/16, Gates met with President Elect Donald Trump to discuss clean energy and medical technology. The meeting was reportedly a positive one according to Gates.

Bill Gates Net Worth Over Time
YearEstimated Net Worth
2007$56,000,000,000
2008$58,000,000,000
2009$40,000,000,000
2010$53,000,000,000
2011$59,000,000,000
2012$62,700,000,000
2013$74,000,000,000
2014$84,100,000,000
2015$79,900,000,000
2016$83,050,000,000

Related: Hillary Clinton Net Worth

Bill Gates Net Worth and Microsoft Stock Holdings

The table below shows how Microsoft stock holdings have contributed to Gates’ wealth. In 1986, the Bill Gates net worth figures were off to a running start with the IPO of Microsoft Incorporated. Gates reported owning 49% of the company’s stock at that time for a total net worth of $254 million. That number had grown to $1.46 billion eleven years later in 1996. Two years later it was 12 times bigger still at $17.3 billion and twelve months after that it had nearly tripled again to $45.9 billion. Gates had quite simply built a better mousetrap and the world had beat a path to his door. While the table below shows a sampling of ten years of stock holdings, the chart below that offers more data points. The graph of Gates’ Microsoft holdings was built from published numbers from SEC reports. The numbers are quite simply the number of shares of Microsoft stock Gates owned multiplied by the price of the stock at that time. Why does the graph go up and down so much instead of straight up? The short answer is that Gates probably wasn’t leaving all of his money in Microsoft. Like any smart investor, he divested himself of shares of his own stock as time went on, building a stock pile of wealth that would ultimately outlast the company he’d created.

Bill Gates' Holdings of Microsoft's Stock
DatePriceShares HeldAmount
3/13/1986$2112,110,405$254,318,513
12/31/199610.33141,108,235$1,457,648,068
12/31/199834.67500,777,800$17,361,966,326
12/31/199958.38787,055,600$45,948,305,928
12/31/200021.69731,749,668$15,871,650,299
12/31/2003$27.521,163,499,336$32,019,501,727
12/31/2010$27.91607,399,512$16,952,520,380
7/31/2016$56.68191,417,750$10,849,558,070

Bill Gates Net Worth from Microsoft

Media Estimates of Bill Gates Net Worth

Don’t take our word for it. Look at the media estimates below of the Bill Gates net worth number. The table and chart below show the top five estimates of the size of Gate’s fortune as compared to MoneyNation’s figure. Our calculations put Gate’s worth slightly higher than Forbes but a lot lower than Bloomberg. The takeaway here is that no matter which estimate you believe, Gates is still the world’s richest human. Even taking the lowest estimate still puts him at about $10 billion richer than the world’s second richest human, Amancio Ortega. That’s not bad for a guy who dropped out of school. Of course “Bill Gates net worth” is really “Bill and Melinda Gates net worth,” but for brevity’s sake we’ve taken that as understood.

Bill Gates Net Worth in the Media
SourceNet WorthAs of Date
Forbes$78,200,000,0008/3/2016
The Richest$88,000,000,0008/2/2016
Bloomberg$87,900,000,0008/2/2016
Pay Wizard$79,200,000,0003/1/2015
Wikipedia$78,300,000,0008/1/2016
MoneyNation$83,050,000,0008/4/2016

Bill Gates net worth in the media

Bill Gates Charitable Giving Facts

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the biggest charitable organization in the world, with an endowment of over $40 billion. Eventually, almost all of the Bill Gates net worth amount will be funneled into this charity. The table below shows the top line facts about the foundation, whose impact is felt not only in the U.S. but all over the world.

Bill Gates Charitable Giving Facts
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the world, having $40.4 billion of endowment / assets as of December 31, 2015.
As of May 16, 2013, Bill Gates had donated a total of $28 billion to the foundation.
The largest holding of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been in Bershire Hathaway's shares, comprising about 6.5% of the portfolio.
Bill Gates plans to give 95% of his wealth to the foundation while the remaining money will go to his children.
The foundation is organized into four program areas: Global Development, Global Health, United States, and Global Policy & Advocacy.
One of the foundation's goals is to lower poverty by increasing the number of college graduates in the United States. It does this through grants to think tanks and advocacy organizations to produce white papers on how to change the current system of federal financial aid for college students.
In recognition for the foundation's philanthropic activities in India, Bill and Melinda Gates jointly received India's third highest civilian honor, Padma Bhushan in 2015.
Gates has credited the generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller as a major influence. Gates and his father met with Rockefeller several times. Their charity work is partly modeled on the Rockefeller family's philanthropic focus, whereby they are interested in tackling the global problems that are ignored by governments and other organizations
On August 15, 2014, Bill Gates posted a video of himself dumping a bucket of ice water on his head, after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg challenged him to do so, in order to raise awareness for the disease ALS.
To raise awareness for the topic of sanitation and possible solutions, Bill Gates drank water which was "produced from human feces" in 2014 – in fact it was produced from a sewage sludge treatment process called the Omni-processor.

 

If you liked reading about Bill Gates net worth, try this article about Jay Z’s net worth or this post about Dr. Dre’s net worth.