Steve Ballmer passed Bill Gates on Monday to become the sixth-richest person in the world, the first time the former chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp. has been wealthier than the company’s co-founder.

The move came as Microsoft shares rose to a fresh record, bringing their total gain this year to 21%. The company, through its partnership with OpenAI, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence rally that has powered the US stock market higher.

More than 90% of Ballmer’s $157.2 billion net worth is in Microsoft shares, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Gates, meanwhile, has diversified his $156.7 billion fortune: About half his wealth is held through Cascade Investment, which was created with the proceeds of Microsoft stock sales and dividends. He also owns a $21 billion stake in waste-management company Republic Services Inc. through Cascade. 

Gates, 68, has been slowly reducing his fortune through philanthropy. Along with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates and his friend Warren Buffett, Gates has funneled billions of dollars of his personal money to build up the $75 billion Gates Foundation, one of the biggest charitable organizations in the world.

Since they started the foundation more than two decades ago, Gates and his former wife have given almost $60 billion from their personal fortunes. French Gates recently stepped down as co-chair of the foundation and received $12.5 billion to use for her own charitable purposes.

In 2010, Gates, French Gates and Buffett also founded the Giving Pledge, an organization that encourages the world’s richest people to give away the majority of their fortunes in their lifetimes or their wills. Ballmer, 68, who has not signed the Giving Pledge, has his own philanthropic work but nowhere on the scale of Gates.

Gates founded Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen in 1975 and led it until 2000, when Ballmer – one of the company’s earliest employees – replaced him as CEO. Ballmer retired in 2014 and became Microsoft’s largest shareholder that same year. He bought the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion in 2014, an investment that is estimated to be worth $4.6 billion today.

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New Delhi:

Melinda French Gates recently opened up about her divorce from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Speaking to TIME magazine, Ms Gates revealed she initially separated from him before ultimately deciding to proceed with the divorce in 2021.

Melinda Gates talked about being able to navigate this process privately, especially while balancing responsibilities like caring for their children. In her words, “To be able to do that in private while I’m still trying to take care of the kids, while still making certain decisions about how you’re going to disentangle your life – thank God.”

Melinda French Gates described her divorce as an “awful” and “horrible thing”. However, “it has been wonderful” since then, she said. “I live in a neighbourhood. Now, I can walk to little stores. I can walk to the drugstore, I can walk to a restaurant,” adding that she “absolutely loves it”.

The divorce, finalised in August 2021 after 27 years of marriage, led her to step away from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an organisation synonymous with global impact and philanthropy.

“I thought a lot about my three children. But I certainly thought about the effect on the foundation. Those are the three biggest buckets: me, the kids, and the foundation. And I wanted to make sure that when we came through it to the other side – all of those pieces were intact,” Melinda French Gates shared during the interview.

Following her exit from the foundation, Ms Gates redirected her efforts towards new initiatives aimed at empowering women on a global scale. She recently announced a billion-dollar funding initiative designed to promote women’s rights and economic empowerment.

Regarding Bill Gates’ association with Jeffrey Epstein, Ms Gates said she did not like that he would meet the sex offender. “I made that clear to him. I also met Jeffrey Epstein exactly one time. I wanted to see who this man was and I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door,” she said.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ former assistant is now the fifth richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index. With an estimated fortune of $117 billion, Steve Ballmer is just one spot behind Mr Gates on the real-time list of the world’s richest person. He is currently richer than Larry Ellison ($114 billion), Warren Buffet ($113 billion), and Mark Zuckerberg ($110 billion), the index shows. Meanwhile, Bill Gates’ fortune stands at $122 billion. 

According to CNN, Mr Ballmer joined Microsoft as its 24th employee in 1980. He has seen his wealth balloon over the past year to reach $117 billion, as per Bloomberg’s data. His fortune now puts him in fifth place, and his wealth since the beginning of the year has surged by more than $30 billion, the outlet reported. 

Ahead of Mr Ballmer are Elon Musk ($193 billion), Bernard Arnault ($156 billion), Jeff Bezos ($156 billion) and Bill Gates ($122 billion). Notably, he is unique among the top-10 cohort as he is the only non-founder of a major business empire. 

As per CNN, Mr Ballmer attended Harvard University, where he met Mr Gates. He graduated in 1977 with degrees in applied mathematics and economics. Mr Ballmer began his career at Microsoft as an assistant to the president some four decades ago. He then rose through the ranks to eventually become its president and then CEO, succeeding Mr Gates. Mr Ballmer stepped down as CEO in 2014 and the same year he bought the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team. 

However, much of Mr Ballmer’s wealth still remains tied up in Microsoft stock. According to Bloomberg, he still owns a roughly 4% stake in the company.

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Meanwhile, speaking about Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, Elon Musk has lost $41 billion for the first time since June. According to the report, Mr Musk’s net worth dropped to $193 billion. Notably, Mr Musk, who is the richest person in the world, owns 13% of Tesla and derives the majority of his wealth from the auto company. Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index report said that Mr Musk has lost $41 billion since Tesla’s October 18 earnings call. The report says that Mr Musk’s was $234 billion before the company’s disappointing third-quarter results. 

Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, the ninth richest man in the world, used to fly economy class on flights for many years. This was revealed by the Co-founder of Netflix, Marc Randolph. He also shared an interesting reason for the same and stated that Mr Gates did not consider flying by first class to be of “good value”. 

Mr Randolph took to X, formerly Twitter and wrote, “For many years, Bill Gates used to fly Economy, not because he couldn’t afford First Class, but because he didn’t consider it good value. It’s five or six times more expensive, but only marginally better (and you all get to your destination at the same time).” He also shared a picture of the billionaire working on his laptop while sitting in the economy section of an aircraft. 

For many years, Bill Gates used to fly Economy, not because he couldn’t afford First Class, but because he didn’t consider it good value. It’s five or six times more expensive, but only marginally better (and you all get to your destination at the same time).

In the same vein, I… pic.twitter.com/Cm8HgKlqTS

— Marc Randolph (@mbrandolph) October 22, 2023

He then drew a parallel and said that even though he can afford a luxury car, he does not intend to buy it because his Volvo station wagon “does the job just fine”. “In the same vein, I could afford a really nice car at this point, but I’ve never been a car guy, and I don’t need a Lamborghini or a Mazerati (which I can’t even spell). A Volvo station wagon does the job just fine, and I wouldn’t value the difference. I don’t need to drop $1000 on a bottle of wine at dinner either, since I know I’ll get the same enjoyment from a $35 bottle,” he continued on the platform.

The Netflix Co-founder then stated that having enough money brings both security and freedom. “So what is wealth good for, in the end? Besides providing security, it also gives flexibility. After all of the experiences I’ve had, the most important thing I’ve learned about money is that, once you have enough (by the previous definition), you can choose to have less of it in exchange for choosing how to spend your time. And spending your time doing something meaningful to you…that’s worth way more than a Mazerati,” he concluded. 

Since being shared, his post has amassed 3.9 million views and over 13,000 likes.

A user said, “Wealth for me is the opportunity to invest in founders and startups that I want to see win because they aspire to solve problems that I care about deeply.” Replying to him, Mr Randolph said that he could “relate to that”.

“Money buys you time, freedom and flexibility, that is what really makes me feel ‘rich’,” said another person.

Another commented, “Perfectly stated.”

However, some people had a different outlook on Mr Randolph’s post. “A couple of notes: – when he was flying economy, the seats were probably the size of current “premium economy”. – when you go above a certain level/price you need to be able to appreciate the quality otherwise everything looks the same. This is true for both cars and wine,” a user added.

“Flying economy despite affording better isn’t a flex. Your legs deserve to not swell if you can afford it,” said another user.

A third person added, “Bill Gates only flew economy because Microsoft made everyone in the company fly economy, probably due to Gates trying to save a buck. And he bought a private jet in 1997.”