Why Has Bill Gates Fallen So Much In The Ranking Of Millionaires?

Bill Gates, the American businessman, and philanthropist is no longer among the three richest people in the world. He dropped to number four on Forbes magazine's annual list. Gates, since 1991, has always been in the top three. But this time, he was outmatched by Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive; Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and French mogul, Bernard Arnault.

There are several reasons that can explain this decline, one of them is the movements of the stock market due to the crisis generated by the pandemic. However, the main cause is estimated to be his divorce from Melinda French and the transfer of Microsoft shares made to the Gates Foundation.

Bill Gates fortune

About a quarter of Bill Gates's fortune comes from his stake in Microsoft, as reported by Forbes magazine. In this company, he has 1.3%, which represents a value of $ 31 billion. The rest of the fortune is derived from his investment firm, Cascade Investment LLC, in addition to other assets he owns. These include its Washington property and its majority stake in Four Seasons Hotels. He also has shares in auto dealership AutoNation, and shares in waste management company Republic Services, and many more.

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In 2018 Gates fell to number two on the Forbes list, surpassed for the first time by Bezos. And at the end of 2020, Musk managed to beat it, especially at the price that Tesla values reached. In August of this year, for the first time Gates fell below third place

Stock transfers due to divorce

After the divorce of Bill Gates and Melinda French, with the consequent transfer of shares, caused Bill Gates to descend in the ranking of millionaires, until occupying the fourth place.

The decline in Bill Gates' fortune stems from the transfer of nearly $ 2.4 billion in shares to his ex-wife. Likewise, it has received large transfers of other shares, such as 3.3 million AutoNation shares, which are worth approximately $ 392 million.

In the same way, it also received the transfer of 2.8 million shares of the agricultural equipment company Deere & Co, which have a value of 1 billion dollars, in addition to receiving 9.5 million shares of Canadian National Railway Co. All this has influenced considerably in diminishing Gates' fortune.

It is not yet known how much the total of what Melinda will receive will be. This is because you will also obtain assets belonging to the participation in private companies of Bill Gates, or investments in real estate. Of these movements, it is not necessary to make public notification of the transfer of the assets.

Bill Gates' fortune was more affected by the divorce than that of Jeff Bezos. The separation of Bezos and Mackenzie Bezos was carried out amicably, in which she only accepted 4% of Amazon's shares, and rejected the shares that corresponded to her in The Washington Post and the space agency Blue Origin. In this way, given the rise in Amazon shares, Bezos continues to be the second richest person in the world.

The future of the Gates Foundation

The Gates Foundation, led by Bill and Melinda, is so far unaffected by the divorce. The agreement announced by Mark Suzman, CEO of the foundation, establishes two years to test whether the ex-partner can continue to work together, otherwise, Melinda would cease to be one of the members of the trust. This would not affect the activities of the foundation.