Forbes put Bill Gates at $105.6 billion on 30 June 2026, ranking Gates 19th in the world. Nobody outside the family office can verify that, because most of the money sits inside a private holding company that files almost nothing. What can be checked is the direction: down, deliberately, and on a published schedule.
Key facts about Bill Gates net worth
| Reported net worth | About $105.6 billion (Forbes, 30 June 2026) |
|---|---|
| Full name | William Henry Gates III |
| Born | 28 October 1955, Seattle; Bill Gates age is 70 |
| Primary source of wealth | Cascade Investment, funded by decades of Microsoft share sales |
| Education | Harvard University, left in 1975 without a degree |
| Marital status | Divorced from Melinda French Gates in 2021; three children |
How much is Bill Gates worth when two rich lists cannot agree
In July 2025 the Bloomberg Billionaires Index carried Gates at $175 billion, then dropped the figure to $124 billion within days after recalculating past donations. Forbes never had Gates above about $108 billion in the same period.
A gap that wide between two serious trackers is a methodology argument, not a market move. Bloomberg had been crediting Gates with money already committed to charity; Forbes had not.
Published estimates of Bill Gates net worth, 2024 to 2026
Each bar is one tracker on one date. Bars from different sources are not comparable to each other.
Bill Gates stopped being a Microsoft story decades ago
Forbes estimates the Microsoft stake at under 1% of the company, after Gates handed billions in shares to the trust behind the foundation in 2022. The rest runs through Cascade Investment, managed by Michael Larson since 1994.
Cascade’s last widely reported public equity snapshot, at the end of 2023, showed roughly $42 billion across names such as Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, Canadian National Railway, Caterpillar and Deere. Everything else it owns is invisible to filings.
The private side is where the odd assets sit. Cascade holds 71.25% of Four Seasons Hotels and about 269,000 acres of farmland bought largely in a 2021 push costing close to $700 million, which makes Gates the largest private farmland owner in the United States.
None of that appears in the story most people know, which is how Microsoft grew from a 1975 partnership into a company Gates no longer meaningfully owns.
The Epstein files reached Bill Gates in the one place that costs real money
Gates sat for a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee on 10 June 2026 and called meeting Jeffrey Epstein a grave error in judgment. Gates has not been charged with any crime and has not been accused of wrongdoing by Epstein’s victims.
The financial consequence landed elsewhere. Warren Buffett paused his customary midyear gift to the Gates Foundation while an outside review by the law firm WilmerHale examined the organisation’s historical ties to Epstein.
On 14 July 2026 Buffett left the foundation out entirely, directing roughly $6 billion in Berkshire shares to four foundations run by the Buffett children instead. Buffett had given the Gates Foundation more than $43 billion since 2006 under a pledge described at the time as irrevocable.
Warren Buffett’s annual gift to the Gates Foundation
The 2026 omission is the first break in a run that started in 2006.
Buffett’s own money and the Gates fortune have been entangled for twenty years, which is why the Berkshire Hathaway story keeps showing up in any honest accounting of Gates Foundation finances.
Bill Gates net worth is not the same as the Gates Foundation endowment
The two numbers get merged constantly. The foundation reported holding $77.2 billion in December 2024, money Gates no longer controls personally and cannot take back.
Reddit threads about Bill Gates net worth tend to collapse the same distinction, arguing over whether the giving is real when the personal figure barely moves. The personal figure moves slowly because Cascade keeps compounding while the transfers go out.
Three numbers people confuse with Bill Gates net worth
Personal wealth, the charity’s current holdings, and a spending plan running to 2045.
Bill Gates has published a date for reaching near zero
On 8 May 2025 Gates wrote that the foundation would close permanently on 31 December 2045 and spend more than $200 billion getting there. Annual grantmaking rises from about $6 billion to $9 billion.
Gates said 99% of the remaining fortune would go out over those twenty years, adding that people would say many things after his death but that dying rich would not be one of them. Since 2000 the foundation has already given away more than $100 billion.
Melinda French Gates has been receiving money separately. Records that surfaced in January 2026 showed another $2 billion transferred, bringing what Melinda French Gates has received from Bill Gates for independent philanthropy to at least $10.8 billion.
The Medina house, the family, and where Bill Gates lives now
Gates still lives at the Medina estate on Lake Washington known as Xanadu 2.0, a 66,000 square foot house that cost about $63 million and took seven years to finish. King County records appraised the main residence at $132 million in 2025, or roughly $171 million counting the surrounding parcels.
A smaller neighbouring house went on the market in February 2026 at $4.8 million and quickly went pending. The main compound has never been listed.
Gates and Melinda French Gates divorced in 2021 after 27 years and have three children, who Gates said back in 2011 would inherit $10 million each. Forbes values Melinda French Gates separately at about $29.4 billion.
The writing has continued through all of it. Gates published How to Avoid a Climate Disaster in 2021, How to Prevent the Next Pandemic in 2022, and the memoir Source Code in February 2025.
Frequently asked questions
What is Bill Gates net worth in 2026?
Forbes estimated $105.6 billion at the end of June 2026, ranking Gates 19th globally. The March 2026 Forbes Billionaires list used $108 billion, and estimates in the $103 billion to $108 billion range circulated through the year.
What does Reddit say about Bill Gates net worth?
Reddit discussion generally fixates on why the number stays near $105 billion despite decades of giving, treating the flat line as evidence the donations are cosmetic. The likelier explanation is that Cascade Investment earns roughly as fast as the foundation transfers go out.
Has Bill Gates been charged over the Epstein matter?
No. Gates gave voluntary closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee on 10 June 2026, denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, and has faced no charges or accusations from victims.
Does Bill Gates still own Microsoft?
Forbes estimates the remaining Microsoft stake at less than 1% of the company, well behind former chief executive Steve Ballmer among individual holders. Most of the Gates fortune now sits in Cascade Investment.
Where does Bill Gates live now, and is Bill Gates still alive?
Gates is 70 and lives in Medina, Washington, a suburb of Seattle across Lake Washington from the city. No street address is published, and the estate is not for sale.
