Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Gates launched Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; it went on to become the world's largest personal computer software company.[4][a] Gates led the company as chairman and CEO until stepping down as CEO in January 2000, but he remained chairman and became chief software architect.[7] In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning to a part-time role at Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the private charitable foundation that he and his wife, Melinda Gates, established in 2000.[8] He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie.[9] He stepped down as chairman of Microsoft in February 2014 and assumed a new post as technology adviser to support the newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella.[10]
Through his tenure at Microsoft in the 1990s, Gates had been criticized for his business tactics, which have been considered anti-competitive. This opinion has been upheld by numerous court rulings.[11]
Since 1987, he has been included in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest documented individuals.[12][13] From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world all but four of those years.[1] Since October 2017, he was surpassed by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who had an estimated net worth of US$90.6 billion compared to Gates' net worth of US$89.9 billion at the time.[14] As of November 9, 2019, Gates had an estimated net worth of US$107.1 billion, making him the second wealthiest person in the world, behind Bezos. On November 15, 2019, following a 48% increase in Microsoft shares, he surpassed Bezos to once again become the richest person in the world.[15]
Later in his career and since leaving day-to-day operations at Microsoft in 2008, Gates pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors. He donated large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reported to be the world's largest private charity.[16] In 2009, Gates and Warren Buffett founded The Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy.[17] The foundation works to save lives and improve global health, and is working with Rotary International to eliminate polio.[wikipedia]
