About
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Until 2014, Gates was the company's largest individual shareholder. Following Microsoft's 1986 initial public offering (IPO), Gates became a billionaire in 1987, at age 31, then the youngest ever. Forbes ranked him as the world's wealthiest person on its list of the world's billionaires for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years continuously from 1995 to 2007. His net worth briefly surpassed US$100 billion in 1999, making him the first centibillionaire. On the 2024 Forbes list, he was ranked seventh, with an estimated net worth of $128 billion.