The world’s third-richest man, Bill Gates, made his fortune through Microsoft, but interestingly, he’s invested about 2 per cent of his wealth into rival company Apple.
Bill Gates’ net worth is US$110 billion (AU$163 billion), and it turns out the Microsoft founder indirectly owns US$1.8 billion (AU$2.7 billion) worth of Apple shares.
How?
When Gates stepped down as chief executive of Microsoft in early 2000, he and his wife Melinda decided they would embark on philanthropic pursuits, and created the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to do so.
To support the foundation’s work, he and his wife created the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust – a fund that has a staggering investment in Berkshire Hathaway.
Berkshire Hathaway was founded and led by Warren Buffett, who is coincidentally, Gates’ very good friend.
And, as of November 2019, Buffett’s company owns just under 250 million Apple shares - or US$79 billion worth.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust owns around 55 million shares in Berkshire Hathaway - or 2.25 per cent of the total company.
If 2.25 per cent of the US$79 billion in Apple shares owned by Berkshire Hathaway are owned by Bill and Melinda Gates, that equates to around US$1.8 billion.
Why is Bill Gates investing in his life-long competitor?
In 2018, Gates told CNBC that Apple was an “amazing company”, and backed Buffett’s decision at the time to up his take in the tech giant.
“I think Warren has applied great thinking there,” he said. “It’s not like a tech speculative company where it’s still losing money or anything.”
Gates said Android’s standing as the non-Apple phone platform was a “natural thing” for Microsoft to become, and not stepping up to the plate was Microsoft’s downfall.
“It’s the biggest mistake I made in terms of something that was clearly within our skillset. We were clearly the company that should have achieved that — and we didn't,” he said.
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Recognizing the potential for a win-win scenario, Microsoft agreed to invest a substantial $150 million in Apple, acquiring non-voting shares. In return, Apple dropped a lawsuit against Microsoft and made Internet Explorer the default browser on its computers, increasing Microsoft's reach and influence.
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist who is the co-founder of Microsoft and longtime acquaintance of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Does Bill Gates own Apple stock? Within Jobs' first year back as CEO, he entered into a partnership with Bill Gates' Microsoft, which made a $150 million investment in Apple and committed to developing software for macOS. In 2003, Microsoft opted to sell all of its Apple stock for $550 million.
Not only that, but Apple got him into the application software business (and now one of Microsoft's most valuable product areas). Rather than letting Apple bleed to death, Gates decided to take it as an opportunity to work with a competitor.
In August of 1997, Gates stepped in and saved Apple, which, at the time, was on the brink of bankruptcy. “Bill, thank you. The world's a better place,” Jobs told Gates after the Microsoft exec agreed to make a $150 million investment in Apple.
Abstract. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, founders of Microsoft and Apple respectively, have revolutionized the relationship between the individual and computer technology.
According to the New York Times, attendees included Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder and Jobs's long-time business rival Bill Gates and singer Joan Baez, who once dated Jobs.
The ownership structure of Apple (AAPL) stock is a mix of institutional, retail and individual investors. Approximately 37.35% of the company's stock is owned by Institutional Investors, 0.11% is owned by Insiders and 62.54% is owned by Public Companies and Individual Investors.
Apple Inc. is the world's second-largest company by market value. The company's market cap was about $2.64 trillion as of March 2024. The Vanguard Group was Apple's top shareholder as of January 2024 with more than 1.27 billion shares representing 8.27% of total shares.
Bullish on this entire logistics and supply chain market, regardless of the competitive differences, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation now owns through Cascade Investment 1.53 million shares of FedEx Corp. This is worth $392 million.
Key Takeaways. Institutional investors are the majority owners of Microsoft, accounting for almost 70% of outstanding shares. Former CEO Steve Ballmer owns a 4% stake in Microsoft, more than its founder Bill Gates, who holds a 1.3% stake. Vanguard and Blackrock are the two largest Microsoft's institutional investors.
Based on a closing price of $171.48 on March 31 and $192.28 on Dec. 31, we can estimate that Berkshire held around 789,596,454 shares of Apple stock on March 31 compared to 906,490,534 shares on Dec. 31 -- implying a 12.9% decrease in the position between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024.
On Friday, Microsoft surpassed Apple, claiming the crown after its market value surged by more than $1 trillion over the past year. Microsoft finished the day at $2.89 trillion, higher than Apple's $2.87 trillion, according to Bloomberg.
The 1997 MacWorld conference in Boston will forever be seen as a turning point in Apple's history. Steve Jobs announced a blockbuster partnership between Microsoft and Apple in which they'd license each other's patents and work together on Java.
In 2001, Microsoft converted its investment into common stock, which mean it owned 18.1 million of Apple shares. Finally, just two years later, Microsoft sold off all of its shares in Apple for $550 million. Most people would think that was a pretty solid return on an investment after six years.
It was in early August 1997 that Microsoft rescued Apple from the brink with a life line of $150 million. Remember, that was a princely investment in those days.
Introduction: My name is Pres. Carey Rath, I am a faithful, funny, vast, joyous, lively, brave, glamorous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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