For those who missed it, Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder, has reduced his stake in the company to a mere 1.3%. In a filing to the SEC on Monday, Gates disclosed that he would be donating 64 million shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:$MSFT), which is worth a total of $4.6 billion.
This is significant news for two reasons: 1) it’s a massive donation, and 2) Bloomberg reported that this is Gates’ biggest donation since giving away $16 billion worth in 1999 and $5.1 billion of shares in 2000.
While the SEC filing doesn’t give details about where Bill Gates donated these shares to, we do know that he has been on a mission to gift his shares and fund the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. For the most part, Gates donates roughly 80 million Microsoft shares each year, and thanks to this latest gift, Bill Gates only has 103 million shares left. In addition, the SEC filing announced that Melinda Gates holds roughly 425,000 Microsoft shares.
If Bill Gates keeps up at this pace, it is very possible that he could reduce his stake in Microsoft to zero in 2019. As of right now, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is the largest holder of Microsoft stock.
Even though this donation is a lot of money, Gates still holds the title of the richest person in the world. Bloomberg has reported that Gates value is sitting at $86.1 billion, which is down from his previous $90 billion fortune.
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