The couple Bill and Melinda Gates in five figures
The announcement was made this May 3 on Twitter by the couple. Bill and Melinda Gates divorce after 27 years of marriage. At the head of the largest private foundation in the world, they should continue to work together anyway. The New York Times reports a shock wave in American economic circles.
Microsoft founder, now billionaire philanthropist, Bill Gates divorces. The announcement was made in a statement posted on Twitter on Monday, May 3. As the head of the Gates Foundation with his wife Melinda, he should continue to work with her despite their breakup. Back in a few figures on the career of this computer genius and his wife who became one of the most powerful couples in the world.
27 years of marriage
Their story begins in 1987 during a dinner in New York. Bill was then the head of Microsoft and Melinda French is marketing manager of the computer giant. Seven years after their meeting, on January 1, 1994, the couple married in Hawaii. Three children are born from this union, Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe. But they will not inherit the majority of their parents' wealth. Bill Gates has already announced that he would leave 10 million dollars to each of his children, the rest being given to his foundation created in 2000 with his wife or associations.
Fourth fortune in the world
According to the latest Forbes ranking, Bill Gates' fortune is estimated at 124 billion dollars, or 102 billion euros. Long the richest man in the world, he is now preceded by two Americans and a Frenchman, Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, Elon Musk who owns Tesla and Bernard Arnault at the head of LVMH. Founder of Microsoft at the age of 20 in 1975 while a student at Harvard, Bill Gates entered the big leagues five years later. He signs a contract with IBM. With his partner Paul Allen, he developed a revolutionary computer operating system for personal computers.
$ 53 billion
Fifty-three billion dollars, or more than 44 billion euros, is the sum spent in 20 years by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fight against poverty and disease. 1,600 people are employed there. This private foundation is the largest in the world. By way of comparison, France's development aid in 2020 amounted to 12 billion, 400 million euros.
$ 1 billion to fight Covid
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has also been involved in the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic. While Donald Trump announced in 2020 the suspension of the American contribution to the WHO, the founder of Microsoft has injected more than 300 million additional dollars in this fight. In total according to the New York Times, the powerful foundation has spent more than a billion dollars to counter the pandemic, the fortune and the foundation of the Gates making the couple real actors of soft power in the field of health and development. .
1% of Microsoft
Bill Gates, who was president of Microsoft until 2014, resigned from the board in 2020. He now retains 1% of the company he founded as a student. He also stepped down from Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. This other billionaire-philanthropist has been close to the Gates couple and for a long time. It was indeed Warren Buffet who had helped Bill Gates in 1988 during an anti-trust lawsuit that compromised the future of Microsoft. The octogenarian now co-chairs the Gates Foundation.
So far no financial arrangement has been disclosed between the future divorcees. In 2019, Jeff Bezos separated from his wife. Mac Kenzie Scott has since become the 22nd richest person in the world according to the Forbes ranking.
