Bill Gates has given away $6 billion to get off the world’s richest people list

Virgin Radio

25 Jul 2022, 08:19

Bill Gates has given away a whopping $6 billion this week in a bid to take himself off the list of the world’s richest people.

Gates, the founder of Microsoft, recently revealed he would be giving away “virtually all” of his money and kicked it off by giving a £20 billion donation to The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation earlier this month.

In a tweet, he wrote: “As I look to the future, I plan to give virtually all of my wealth to the foundation. I will down and eventually off the list of the world’s richest people.”

Last week, filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also showed that Gates had donated close to $5.2 billion worth of stock in Canadian National Railway Co to his charity.

Not only that, but the filings from 22 July also revealed Gates gave a further £995 million worth of shares in Deere & Co. to the foundation on Thursday.

The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation was set up by the businessman and his ex-wife in 2000 and, as of 2015, it became the world’s largest private charitable organization.

As it stands, Gates is now worth $112 billion, just behind Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault and Gautam Adani (via Bloomberg).

The Microsoft founder currently sits on the infamous Forbes Rich List, and in an interview with company he announced he intended to follow in the footsteps of philanthropist Chuck Feeney, who lived by a “give while you live” principle.

This lead to Gates vowing to get himself off the rich list, and after his most recent donation, he has now dropped to the number five spot.

He said: “I'll get myself out of the highly visible part of the list with just say two more gifts of this magnitude. I would get myself off the top part of the list. 

“Getting all the way off the list, that's going to take me a while, but my direction of travel is clear.”