Bill Gates (1955 – ) American businessman, founder of Microsoft

Introduction

Bill Gates is a man of technology and benevolence. If you are a computer user, then no introduction is needed for him. He is one of the co-founders of Microsoft. He is known for his remarkable innovations like Microsoft Windows, office, MS-DOS, Internet Explorer and many more.

Early Life

Bill Gates was born on 28 October 1955 in Seattle, Washington. His father was William H. Gates II, an Attorney, and his mother name Mary Maxwell, a businesswoman. His full name is William Henry Gates III.

• He was quite intelligent and had a keen interest in mathematics. At thirteen years of age, he went to Preparatory School, where he met his business partner Paul Allen.

• At school, he got introduced to computers and was fascinated by them. He also wrote a computer program to track traffic patterns in Seattle with his friend Paul Allen.

• Later after completing High School in 1973, he planned to join Law College, but later changed his mind and joined Harvard University in Boston, in 1975. He joined with Paul, who was working as a programmer in Honeywell.

• They made their first BASIC software programme, a programming language used for large computers.

Microsoft

• Bill Gates left Harvard University in his junior and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975. He developed “Microsoft” means where ‘micro’ represent microcomputer and ‘soft’ for Software with his friend Allen for Personal Computers.

• In 1976, they removed the hyphen attached from “Micro-soft” and founded Microsoft in Bellevue, Washington. In 1980 Microsoft make a deal with IBM for using the BASIC operating System MS-DOS for the manufacturing of the first microcomputer PC.

Business Ventures and Investments

• They also partnered with Apple for some projects.

• In 1983 Paul Allen left Microsoft due to personal reasons. At that time, Microsoft captured 30% of the global market with its software and become a billionaire on paper in 1986.

• Later, Bill Gates released the Microsoft operating system, this was the second operating system for Personal Computers after Apple Macintosh. They acquired the major market as the Apple operating system was working only on Apple machines while the Microsoft operating system MS-DOS was working on the majority of machines.

• In 1985, they launched Windows, and in 1989 MS Office was launched for PC.

• Later in 1995 Windows 95, Windows 2000, XP, and Vista are released.

Climate Change And Energy

Bill Gates foundation invested in climate tech companies recently. He says that it's bad that greenhouse gas emissions increasing. We need to revolutionise our economy by producing food, and electricity and stay warm and cool in the coming decades. He said we need to eliminate global greenhouse emissions by 2050.

Political Position

Bill Gates founded the Teenage Republican Club at his high school. He was also an officer at Lowa federation College. He was also in the service of the Republican club and also served as the Republican legislative district chair. Furthermore, he also served as secretary in Maricopa County Republican Committee in 2000.

He never supported any particular party, but he donated several times to both democrats and republicans as a humanitarian.

Philanthropy

Bill Gates is an eminent humanitarian. He started his humane work with his wife Melinda Gates through Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

• His foundation funding various global health programs, education, Sanitization, Research, and child vaccination (CHAMPS) for 20 years.

• His foundation installed 11000 computers in 50 states of North American Libraries in 1996.

• His foundation helped farmers in Africa and Asia for dealing with climate change.

• His foundation also funded more than US$ 2 billion to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Book

Bill Gates loves reading books. It is said, he read 50 books per year. He spends 3 hours per day reading, mostly on vacations. He also wrote four books with some authors.

• The Road Ahead (1995), written by Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold Executive Microsoft and Peter Rinearson Journalist.

• Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999)

• How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (2021)

• How to Prevent the Next Pandemic (2022)

Personal Life

Bill Gates Married Melinda French in January 1994. He has three children, two daughters and a son name; Jennifer Katharine Gates, Phoebe Adele Gates and Rory John Gates respectively.

He announced his divorce from Melinda Gates on 3 May 2021 after 27 years of Marriage.

Controversies

Bill and Melinda Gate foundation was criticised for not sharing COVID-19 vaccine tech with developing countries like India due to security issues. In 2020, he was also criticised for making COVID-19 vaccine compulsory for all in the UK.

In the 1980s, when Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen was not well, he was accused of taking shares of Allen.

Recognition

• Bill Gates was honoured as the most influential person by Time Magazine's 20th century in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

• He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of freedom in 2016 by President Barack Obama.

• He was also awarded Padma Bhushan Award by Indian Government in 2015 for his humanitarian work.

• He was awarded by Turing Award the Computer Engineering, Innovators, and Inventor award.

Conclusion

Bill Gates is an American technologist and entrepreneur. He founded Microsoft Corporation in 1976 with his Friend and co-founder Paul Allen. His company contributed to the development of Operating Systems, Internet Service providers, Personal Computers, mobile, and electronic games.

FAQs

Q1. What is the current net worth of Bill Gates?

Ans. According to Forbes, his net worth as on 11 January 2023 is $102.6 B billion. He is one of the most affluent people in the world.

Q2. What made Bill Gates the richest person?

Ans. He was a brilliant scholar. His love for computers inspired him to develop software and found Microsoft Corporation. His hard work and passion made Microsoft the largest software company in the world.

Q3. When did Bill Gates Step down as chairman of Microsoft?

Ans. He quit as chairman of Microsoft in 2014 but remained a board member and technology adviser of the company.