Bill Gates is a billionaire investor and philanthropist. He owns a significant stake in many companies through The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and personal investment firm Cascade Investment.
Bill Gates is most commonly associated with Microsoft, but the founder sold most of his Microsoft shares after stepping down as CEO in 2000. He instead favors investment in evergreen industries such as waste management, heavy machinery, and transportation.
Berkshire Hathaway represents the largest holding of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates and founder Warren Buffett have been friends for decades and share similar philanthropic values.
Company / Organization
Business Category
Key Differentiator
Integration Strategy
Microsoft
Technology and Software
Leading technology company.
Co-founded and led Microsoft, focusing on software development, operating systems, and computing technology.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Philanthropy
Charitable foundation addressing global challenges.
Established to address global issues, such as health, poverty, and education, through philanthropic efforts.
Breakthrough Energy
Clean Energy and Innovation
Investing in clean energy solutions.
Invests in clean energy technologies to combat climate change and promote sustainable energy sources.
TerraPower
Nuclear Energy and Innovation
Advanced nuclear energy technology.
Develops advanced nuclear energy solutions for a more sustainable and secure energy future.
Gates Ventures
Investment and Innovation
Investment and innovation firm.
Invests in various technology, healthcare, and innovation-related ventures to drive progress and change.
Cambia Health Solutions
Healthcare Technology
Healthcare transformation and technology.
Focuses on healthcare technology and solutions to improve the healthcare experience for individuals.
Kirkland & Ellis
Law Firm
International law firm.
Engages in legal services and provides legal counsel for various initiatives and investments.
Cascade Investment
Investment Holding Company
Investment and asset management.
Manages Bill Gates’ diversified investment portfolio, which includes equity stakes in multiple companies.
Bill Gates is an American business tycoon, software developer, investor, and more recently, philanthropist. After dropping out of Harvard University and founding Microsoft in 1975, Gates has at times been the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $129 billion. He founded Cascade Investment in 1995 to manage his investments outside of Microsoft. The firm employs over 100 people and has significant stakes in hotel, rail transport, beverage, and waste management companies. To further his philanthropic causes, he founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. The foundation holds almost $47 billion in assets and tackles entrenched global issues around poverty, healthcare, and climate change. The foundation also has several trust investments in companies such as Berkshire Hathaway, Caterpillar, FedEx, Walmart, and UPS.
Table of Contents
Microsoft
In popular culture, Microsoft is the company most commonly associated with Bill Gates.
But in truth, Gates sold most of his shares in the company in 2000 – the same year he stepped down as CEO. He now serves as a technical advisor and has relatively little to do with day-to-day operations.
Having said that, he maintains a 3.6% stake in the company through Cascade Investment. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also has a small stake.
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway represents the largest holding of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, owning approximately 7 million shares with a market value of $7 billion.
Gates and Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett have been close friends for several decades. Both have also attracted significant praise for donating a large proportion of their wealth to philanthropic causes.
Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts
Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts is an international luxury hotel and resort company.
Founded in 1961, the company operates more than 100 hotels and resorts around the world. Gates together with Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia own 95% of the company in shares after a $3.8 billion investment in 2007.
Canadian National Railway
Canadian National Railway is the third-largest holding of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Through the foundation and his personal investment company, Gates is the largest single shareholder at approximately 10.04%.
In addition to rail, the company provides integrated transportation services in trucking, warehousing, and freight forwarding.
Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar is a manufacturer and designer of heavy vehicles used in the energy, mining, and agriculture industries. It also sells financial products such as insurance to customers through a global dealer network.
The company is the fourth-largest holding of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
UPS and FedEx
Curiously, Gates has significant stakes in UPS and FedEx. Both are American courier companies that are also direct competitors.
His investment in these companies is generally viewed as a way to profit from the growing eCommerce trend.
Waste Management, Inc.
Waste Management, Inc., is the second-largest Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation holding. The foundation has almost 19 million shares with a market value of $1.97 billion.
The company is a provider of waste management services in the United States with over 21 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers. It is also involved in several green initiatives including the conversion of landfill gas into electricity.
Key takeaways:
Bill Gates: An American business tycoon, software developer, investor, and philanthropist, known for co-founding Microsoft.
Microsoft: Gates co-founded Microsoft in 1975. He sold most of his Microsoft shares in 2000, stepping down as CEO. He maintains a 3.6% stake in the company through Cascade Investment and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Cascade Investment: Gates founded Cascade Investment in 1995 to manage his investments outside of Microsoft. The firm holds stakes in various industries, including hotels, rail transport, beverage, and waste management companies.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Founded in 2000, the foundation focuses on global issues like poverty, healthcare, and climate change. It holds significant assets and investments in companies like Berkshire Hathaway, Caterpillar, FedEx, Walmart, and UPS.
Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts: Gates, along with Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, owns 95% of the luxury hotel and resort company after a $3.8 billion investment in 2007.
Canadian National Railway: Gates is the largest single shareholder with about 10.04% ownership in this transportation company, which provides integrated services in trucking, warehousing, and freight forwarding.
Caterpillar Inc.: Gates holds a significant stake in Caterpillar, a manufacturer of heavy vehicles used in energy, mining, and agriculture. The company also offers financial products and services.
UPS and FedEx: Gates has stakes in both UPS and FedEx, American courier companies, likely as a way to capitalize on the growing eCommerce trend.
Waste Management, Inc.: The second-largest holding of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the company provides waste management services in the United States and is involved in green initiatives.
Major shareholders comprise co-founder Bill Gates, who stepped down from the company’s board in 2020, which is why these shares are no longer publicly reported. In 2019, Gates still owned a stake of 103 million stocks, which accounted for 1.34% of the company’s ownership (worth over $23 billion in January 2023). Other individual shareholders comprise Satya Nadella, the company’s CEO, Brad Smith (former president), Jean-Philippe Courtois (EVP), and Amy Hood (former CFO).
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. With over $110 billion in revenues in 2018, Office Products and Windows are still the main products. Yet the company also operates in Gaming (Xbox), Search Advertising (Bing), Hardware, LinkedIn, Cloud, and more.
Microsoft has a diversified businessmodel, spanning from Office to gaming (with Xbox), LinkedIn, search (with Bing), and enterprise services (with GitHub). In 2021, Microsoft made over $168 billion in revenues, of which over $52 billion came from Server products and cloud services, and $39.8 billion came from Office products and cloud services. Windows generated over $23 billion, Gaming generated over $15 billion, LinkedIn over $10 billion, and search advertising (through Bing) over $8.5 billion.
Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft is a revolutionary company in the world of personal computing. The company designs and manufactures software, hardware, operating systems, apps, and devices. Indeed, Windows and Microsoft Office are staples in billions of homes worldwide.
Microsoft has a product-type divisional organizational structure based on functions and engineering groups. As the company scaled over time, it also became more hierarchical while maintaining its hybrid approach between functions, engineering groups, and management.
Value investing is a strategy advocating the purchase of stocks that are underappreciated by other investors or the broader market. Value investing was popularised by investor Warren Buffett, but the approach was pioneered by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd at Columbia Business School in the early 1920s. Graham would later go on to release the seminal book The Intelligent Investor in 1949.
The Buffet Indicator is a measure of the total value of all publicly-traded stocks in a country divided by that country’s GDP. It’s a measure and ratio to evaluate whether a market is undervalued or overvalued. It’s one of Warren Buffet’s favorite measures as a warning that financial markets might be overvalued and riskier.
The circle of competence describes a person’s natural competence in an area that matches their skills and abilities. Beyond this imaginary circle are skills and abilities that a person is naturally less competent at. The concept was popularised by Warren Buffett, who argued that investors should only invest in companies they know and understand. However, the circle of competence applies to any topic and indeed any individual.
Economic or market moats represent long-term business defensibility. Or how long a business can retain its competitive advantage in the marketplace over the years. Warren Buffet who popularized the term “moat” referred to it as a share of mind, opposite to market share, as such it is the characteristic that all valuable brands have.
The Golden Circle attempts to explain how certain businesses can inspire others and differentiate themselves in the market. Originally developed by author Simon Sinek, the concept helps businesses identify their purpose and then communicate that purpose to consumers in a meaningful way so that the brand can be highly differentiated in the marketplace.
The 5 Whys method is an interrogative problem-solving technique that seeks to understand cause-and-effect relationships. At its core, the technique is used to identify the root cause of a problem by asking the question of why five times. This might unlock new ways to think about a problem and therefore devise a creative solution to solve it.
First-principles thinking – sometimes called reasoning from first principles – is used to reverse-engineer complex problems and encourage creativity. It involves breaking down problems into basic elements and reassembling them from the ground up. Elon Musk is among the strongest proponents of this way of thinking.
Second-order thinking is a means of assessing the implications of our decisions by considering future consequences. Second-order thinking is a mental model that considers all future possibilities. It encourages individuals to think outside of the box so that they can prepare for every and any eventuality. It also discourages the tendency for individuals to default to the most obvious choice.
Warren Buffett is an American investor, business tycoon, and philanthropist. Known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, Buffett is best known for his strict adherence to value investing and frugality despite his immense wealth. He is among the wealthiest people in the world. Most of his wealth is tied up in Berkshire-Hathaway and its 65 subsidiaries.
Jeff Bezos was best known for founding eCommerce giant Amazon in 1994. However, the entrepreneur owns companies in several industries, including health care, retail, robotics, real estate, and media. Many of these companies have been acquired by Amazon over the years, but some have been the result of direct investment from Bezos himself (through his investment arm is called Bezos Expeditions).
Elon Musk is one of the richest people in the world, with his main ownership in Tesla, making him worth more than a hundred billion dollars. The companies founded by Elon Musk range from electric vehicles and renewable energies, with Tesla, rockets, with SpaceX, infrastructure with The Boring Company, and neurotechnology with Neuralink.
Bill Gates is an American business tycoon, software developer, investor, and more recently, philanthropist. After dropping out of Harvard University and founding Microsoft in 1975, Gates has at times been the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $129 billion. He founded Cascade Investment in 1995 to manage his investments outside of Microsoft. The firm employs over 100 people and has significant stakes in hotel, rail transport, beverage, and waste management companies. To further his philanthropic causes, he founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. The foundation holds almost $47 billion in assets and tackles entrenched global issues around poverty, healthcare, and climate change. The foundation also has several trust investments in companies such as Berkshire Hathaway, Caterpillar, FedEx, Walmart, and UPS.
Mark Zuckerberg is the largest shareholder of the company. Zuckerberg retains ownership and control of the company. Like Google, Facebook has issued two common stocks, Class A and Class B. The holders of Class B common stocks are entitled to ten votes per share, and holders of our Class A common stocks are entitled to one vote per share. Mark Zuckerberg has a voting power of 56.9%; he’s the main decision-maker.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
