Among the 20 richest people in the world, only one has lost ground on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. Bill Gates has lost $40 billion in net worth so far in 2025. One reason for this decline is that he has sold a great deal of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock. Steve Ballmer, who followed Gates as Microsoft CEO, has kept most, if not all, of his Microsoft shares and has a net worth of $178 billion. That puts him in eighth place on the list. Gates ranks 15th with a net worth of $118 billion.
Some of Gates’s net worth was gone years ago. He and his then-wife launched the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2005. They put $17 billion into the foundation. Additionally, he lost about $76 billion when the couple divorced.
Aside from Microsoft, Gates’s largest public company ownership is in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B), which is run by his friend Warren Buffett. Berkshire’s stock has had a rough year.
Gates also has some private company investments. This includes an advanced-stage nuclear power company called TerraPower. He is also likely the largest landowner in the United States and holds 270,000 acres. He has an umbrella company, Cascade Investments, which holds other private investments.
The primary reason for the decline in Gates’s net worth is the way Bloomberg makes its wealth calculation. He said we would donate almost all of his net worth to his foundation during his lifetime, and the reset happened on July 13.
Gates was once the world’s richest man, a spot he held for 18 of the 24 years between 1995 and 2017.
Microsoft Stock Price Prediction and Forecast 2025–2030
