Some links on this page are affiliate links: if you buy through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
Bill Gates—born William Henry Gates III on October 28, 1955, in Seattle—is an American technologist, business leader, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975, helping turn personal-computer software into a mass-market business through products including MS-DOS, Windows, and Office.
Gates left Microsoft’s day-to-day operations in 2008 and departed its board in 2020. As of August 18, 2026, he is chair and a board member of the Gates Foundation, while also working through Gates Ventures and supporting climate, energy, health, and technology initiatives. The foundation has announced plans to close on December 31, 2045.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Source Code: My Beginnings | $12.91 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
|
Who Is Bill Gates? (Who Was?) | $5.39 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
|
Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire | $37.84 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
|
Bill Gates: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies) | $24.28 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
|
Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King: Bill Gates and His Quest to Shape Our World | $9.66 | Buy on Amazon |
Bill Gates at a glance
| Full name | William Henry Gates III |
|---|---|
| Born | October 28, 1955, Seattle, Washington |
| Known for | Co-founding Microsoft and building a global software business |
| Microsoft roles | Co-founder, CEO through 2000, chairman, chief software architect, and later technology adviser |
| Current foundation role | Chair and board member of the Gates Foundation, as of August 18, 2026 |
| Family | Formerly married to Melinda French Gates; they have three children |
| Memoir | Source Code: My Beginnings, published February 4, 2025 |
Early life and education
Gates grew up in an affluent Seattle family. His father, William H. Gates Sr., was an attorney; his mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, was a civic leader and University of Washington regent. He has two sisters.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
As a student, Gates gained access to computer time and became deeply interested in programming. He developed his skills alongside Paul Allen, a childhood friend who shared his fascination with microprocessors and software. Gates developed a reputation for intense concentration, competitiveness, and close attention to technical and business details, although descriptions of his personality and management style should be understood as accounts from employees, executives, journalists, and biographers—not as definitive psychological diagnoses.
#1 Best Overall
Gates enrolled at Harvard University but left after completing three years to pursue Microsoft with Allen. Calling him a Harvard “dropout” is technically accurate, but it omits the more important context: he left college to build a company around an emerging software opportunity.
How Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured the Altair 8800, an early microcomputer. Gates and Allen recognized that the machine would need software and contacted its manufacturer. They developed an interpreter for the Altair’s programming language, later known as Altair BASIC.
That work led to the creation of Microsoft in 1975. The company initially focused on programming languages and software for emerging personal-computer hardware. In 1976, Gates and Allen adopted “Microsoft” as the company’s business identity.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsMicrosoft was not founded by Gates alone. Allen was a co-founder and an important technical and early business partner. The two later disagreed over control, ownership, and management style. Allen left Microsoft’s day-to-day operations in the early 1980s but remained a major shareholder and public figure until his death in 2018.
Microsoft’s own accounts of its origins are available in its founding history and corporate timeline.
How Microsoft became a software powerhouse
Microsoft’s success came from more than Gates’s programming ability. It depended on Allen and other employees, IBM’s personal-computer strategy, hardware manufacturers, software developers, market timing, and aggressive execution.
Several decisions were especially important:
- Licensing software across hardware: Microsoft built a business selling or licensing software that could run on computers made by many companies.
- The IBM PC opportunity: In 1981, Microsoft software became part of IBM’s PC launch. MS-DOS became central to the company’s growth; Microsoft licensed the operating system rather than simply selling IBM a one-off operating system.
- Windows: Microsoft released the first version of Windows on November 20, 1985, adding a graphical environment to the PC ecosystem.
- Office: Microsoft later built a dominant productivity-software suite around applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
- Compatibility and developers: Hardware compatibility, a large developer base, and widely used software reinforced the Windows ecosystem.
Microsoft opened its first international sales office in Japan in 1978 and went public on March 13, 1986. Gates helped shape product priorities, licensing strategy, corporate culture, relationships with hardware makers, and competitive responses to IBM, Apple, Netscape, and other rivals. He did not invent the personal computer; his central contribution was in software, commercialization, and business strategy.
Rank #2
Gates’s roles at Microsoft
Gates served as Microsoft’s chief executive officer until 2000. He then remained chairman and served as chief software architect while gradually shifting his focus beyond daily corporate management.
In June 2006, Microsoft announced a two-year transition plan. Effective in 2008, Gates moved to full-time work at his foundation and part-time involvement with Microsoft. He did not abruptly retire or immediately sever all ties with the company.
Gates stepped down as Microsoft chairman on February 4, 2014, when Satya Nadella became CEO, and became a founder and technology adviser. He left Microsoft’s board on March 13, 2020. The company’s announcements document the 2006 transition plan, the 2014 leadership change, and his 2020 board departure.
Controversies surrounding Gates and Microsoft
Antitrust litigation
In the late 1990s, the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. states challenged Microsoft’s conduct in the operating-system and browser markets. The litigation focused on whether Microsoft used its market position and business practices to restrict competition. It helped shape Gates’s public image as an aggressive executive and raised lasting questions about platform power.
The case should not be simplified into “Microsoft was successful because it broke the law,” nor should all criticism be dismissed. Legal allegations, court findings, remedies, and later outcomes are distinct from broader judgments about the company’s strategy.
Management style
Former employees, executives, journalists, and biographers have described Gates as demanding, confrontational, detail-oriented, or intimidating. Those accounts help explain the culture associated with Microsoft’s early growth, but they are perspectives rather than neutral measurements.
Philanthropic power and wealth
Gates’s philanthropy has funded major work in global health, education, agriculture, and poverty reduction. It has also prompted criticism of billionaire influence: private foundations can shape public-health, education, and development priorities without direct democratic accountability. More broadly, critics question whether philanthropy can offset concerns about concentrated wealth, corporate power, and inequality.
Rank #3
- bill gates
- microsoft
Gates is also a prominent commentator on pandemic preparedness and vaccines. His influence comes from philanthropy, advocacy, funding, and public communication; it does not make him a physician, epidemiologist, government official, or sole authority on public-health policy.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Why Gates left Microsoft
Gates’s transition was primarily a change in priorities. After helping lead Microsoft through its formative decades, he chose to concentrate on philanthropy and other technology projects. The sequence matters:
- Microsoft announced the planned transition in 2006.
- Gates left day-to-day operations in 2008 and focused full-time on the foundation.
- He remained Microsoft chairman and an adviser for several years.
- He left the chairmanship in 2014.
- He departed the board in 2020.
The Gates Foundation
Gates began major philanthropic work in 1994 through the William H. Gates Foundation. In 1997, he and Melinda Gates created the Gates Library Foundation. Those organizations merged in 2000 to form the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, now branded the Gates Foundation.
The foundation’s major areas include global health, infectious-disease prevention, maternal and child health, agricultural development, education, and poverty reduction. Gates is currently its chair and a board member. Melinda French Gates left the organization’s leadership in 2024, so older references to the two as co-chairs are outdated.
The foundation reports its own grants, programs, and goals. A reported dollar amount can describe money committed or disbursed during a stated period, but spending alone does not prove an outcome. Evaluating the foundation also requires considering independent evidence, governance, accountability, and the risks of private influence over public priorities.
The foundation’s 2045 closure plan
In May 2025, Gates announced that the foundation plans to close permanently on December 31, 2045. He said he intends to direct virtually all of his remaining wealth to the foundation over the intervening two decades.
This is a future commitment and timetable—not a claim that Gates has already given away all his wealth. The foundation describes the plan as a time-limited strategy involving accelerated giving. Its future spending priorities and eventual impact should be attributed to Gates and the foundation rather than presented as independently guaranteed results. The foundation’s FAQ provides its current explanation of the plan.
Rank #4
What Bill Gates does now
As of August 18, 2026, Gates’s work is divided among several distinct institutions and activities:
- Gates Foundation: He serves as chair and board member, focusing on strategy, philanthropy, and advocacy in areas such as global health and development.
- Gates Ventures: His private office works on initiatives and investments involving health, climate, energy, education, and technology.
- Breakthrough Energy: Gates is associated with the organization’s efforts to support clean-energy innovation and climate solutions.
- TerraPower: He is associated with the advanced nuclear-energy company.
- Health and science interests: His work includes attention to infectious disease, Alzheimer’s research, and other health issues, without making him a medical specialist by title.
- Writing and communication: He publishes essays, recommendations, interviews, and explanations of his work through Gates Notes.
These organizations have different structures and purposes. Gates does not currently run Microsoft; he left its board in 2020.
Recommended Free Tools
Personal life
Gates was married to Melinda French Gates. They have three children and divorced in 2021. Melinda later left the Gates Foundation’s leadership in 2024. Gates’s family background and personal interests are part of his biography, but they do not by themselves explain his corporate decisions or philanthropic results.
Source Code: My Beginnings
Gates’s first memoir, Source Code: My Beginnings, was published by Knopf on February 4, 2025. The listed hardcover edition is 336 pages. It covers his childhood, family, early programming, school years, relationship with Paul Allen, and the formative period around Microsoft’s creation.
The book is a first-person memoir of Gates’s beginnings, not a complete autobiography through 2026. It is useful for understanding his own perspective, but it should not be the sole source for disputed events, Microsoft’s institutional history, antitrust litigation, or the long-term effects of his philanthropy. See the publisher’s page for publication details.
Bill Gates’s legacy
Gates’s historical importance rests on helping make software a scalable mass-market business. Microsoft’s operating-system and productivity-software strategy helped establish the platform model that shaped personal computing for decades. That achievement was collective: Allen, Microsoft employees, IBM, hardware partners, developers, competitors, and favorable market conditions all mattered.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →His legacy is also contested. Microsoft’s market power and management culture drew substantial criticism, while Gates’s later philanthropy created both measurable institutional resources and questions about accountability. The fairest assessment is neither “visionary genius” nor “monopolist” as an all-purpose label. Gates was a highly consequential software entrepreneur whose business success, public controversies, immense wealth, and philanthropic influence are inseparable parts of the same biography.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Bill Gates found Microsoft by himself?
No. Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975.
Did Bill Gates graduate from Harvard?
No. He completed three years at Harvard and left to pursue Microsoft.
Is Bill Gates still involved with Microsoft?
He left Microsoft’s board in March 2020. He does not run the company, although he has retained a founder and technology-adviser relationship.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
What does Bill Gates do now?
He chairs the Gates Foundation and works through Gates Ventures and initiatives associated with Breakthrough Energy, TerraPower, health research, climate, energy, education, and technology.
When will the Gates Foundation close?
The foundation has announced a planned permanent closure on December 31, 2045.
Is Bill Gates a doctor or scientist?
No. He is a technologist, business leader, investor, philanthropist, and public commentator. His health influence comes through funding, advocacy, and philanthropy.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
