William henry gates

Future life

In 1989, Gates founded the multimedia company Corbis ^[24] and was arrested a third time on charges of drunk driving.
In 1994, Gates purchased Codex Leicester, a collection of works by Leonardo da Vinci , for $30.8 million ^[25] . It has been on display at the Seattle Museum of Art since 2003 .
In 1997, Gates spoke via video link in Boston at the Macworld Expo , where they talked about the development of MS Office , IE , Java products for Macintosh , investing $ 150 million in Apple . The broadcast of Bill's performance was on the big screen, and it was similar to Big Brother 's performance in Apple 's 1984 commercial ^[26] .
In 1997, Gates was extorted by Chicago resident Adam Quinn Pletcher .  Gates testified at the ensuing trial. Pletcher was found guilty and sentenced in July 1998 to six years in prison.
On February 4, 1998, during an official trip to the European Union, Bill Gates was thrown in the face with a cake at the entrance to the government building in Brussels. The joker fled, but his assistant and cameraman were detained and subsequently released, as the famous "cake thrower", Belgian Noel Godin , appeared on television, where he took the blame. Gates declined to take legal action . ^[27] Among the organizers and direct executor of this action was the famous Belgian director Remy Belvaux ^[28] [29] .
In June 1999, multimedia company Corbis, co-owned by Gates, acquired the well-known photo agency Sygma for $100 million. At that time, Bill Gates turned out to be the owner of the largest photo archive in the world ^[30] .
The following episode gives some idea of ​​Gates's religious views: when a correspondent for The Times magazine asked if he believed in God, Gates replied: "I have no facts testifying to him" ^[31] . However, his children are raised in Catholicism. In a 2014 interview, Gates admits: “the beauty of the universe is stunning, and there is no scientific explanation for this” and “Believing in God makes sense, but how exactly it will affect your life, I don’t know” ^[32] .
Gates donated money to George W. Bush 's 2004 presidential campaign, according to Forbes magazine . According to the Center for Responsible Politics, Gates donated at least $ 33,335 to more than 50 political campaigns during the 2004 election.
On December 14, 2004, Bill Gates joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway , thus formalizing his relationship with Warren Buffett . Berkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate that includes Geico (car insurance), Benjamin Moore (paints) and Fruit of the Loom (textiles). Gates also sits on the board of Icos, Bothell's biotechnology company ^[33] . On March 14, 2020, Bill Gates stepped down from the Board of Directors of Berkshire Hathaway ^[34]
On March 2, 2005, the British Foreign Office announced that Gates would be made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to the UK economy and his efforts to alleviate world poverty ^[35] .
At the end of 2005, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates were named People of the Year by Time magazine ^[36] .
On January 7, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intention to step down as the head of Microsoft Corporation in July 2008, switching his activities to charity ^[37] .
On June 15, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intention to leave his permanent job at Microsoft from July 2008 . After leaving his post, he intends to devote himself entirely to the management of the charitable foundation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation .
June 27, 2008 was the last for Bill Gates as head of Microsoft. Despite this, it was stated that he did not break with the company for good - Gates would remain the chairman of the Board of Directors (without executive powers), would be engaged in special projects, and also remain the largest (8.7% of Microsoft shares) shareholder of the corporation ^[38] . In 2008, Gates resigned as president of Microsoft Corporation, in 2010 he left the post of chief executive officer. Both positions were given to Steve Ballmer . In December 2011, Gates denied rumors about his possible return to the management of the company ^[39] .
At the end of October 2008 in Kirkland ( Washington , USA) Bill Gates registered his third company called " bgC3 ". Unverified sources claim that "bgC3" stands for Bill Gates Company Three (Third Bill Gates Company). It was announced that it will be a research center, whose tasks will include the provision of scientific and technological services, work in the field of analytics and research, as well as the creation and development of software and hardware ^[40] .
In October 2013, according to Reuters, three major shareholders of Microsoft (with a stake of about 5%) demanded the resignation of Bill Gates from the position of head of the board of directors of the corporation. At that time, the share of Gates's shares was 4.5 percent ^[41] . In February 2014, Gates stepped down as chairman of the board of directors ^[42] .
On December 2, 2015, together with Zuckerberg , Gates founded the Breakthrough Energy Coalition fund, designed to attract private investment in the search and development of clean and alternative energy sources. Created the Mission Innovation initiative, which brings together 20 countries, including the UK, USA, Brazil, India, China and others. The objective of the initiative is to double the level of public investment in the development of clean energy sources over the next five years from 10 billion to 20 billion dollars a year ^[43] .
In September 2015, al-Qaeda put Gates on the list of major businessmen to be destroyed if they do not withdraw their capital from the United States ^[44] . In May 2016, al-Qaeda called for the killing of US businessmen, and as an illustration published a poster depicting Gates next to a gun and blood ^[45] .
In February 2016, Bill Gates supported the FBI 's demand for Apple to unlock an iPhone owned by terrorist Said Farouk ^[46] . In April of the same year, Gates supported the lawsuit of Microsoft, which sued the US authorities demanding that it be given the right to notify its customers if third parties accessed their data ^[47] . At the same time, Gates said that the government should be able to obtain private information, but "the case should be extraordinary" ^[47] .
In 2016, Bill Gates topped the YouGov list of the most respected men on the planet. (English)rus.^[48] .
In June 2017, Forbes magazine recognized Bill Gates as the richest American in the world. The entrepreneur's fortune was estimated at 88.9 billion US dollars ^[49] . On July 27, 2017, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos overtook Bill Gates in the Bloomberg and Forbes ratings of billionaires, thus becoming the richest person in the world ^[50] , but the very next day, against the backdrop of falling Amazon shares after the publication of financial statements, he again became the second ^[51] .
In 2018, Gates was again pushed to second place on the Forbes list of billionaires by Jeff Bezos. Bill Gates' net worth was $90 billion, while Bezos' assets were valued at $112 billion ^[52] .
Included in the list of the most influential people in the world according to Forbes magazine. In 2018, he took 7th place in it, although earlier, in 2012, he rose to 4th position ^[53] .
In April 2019, it became known that Bill Gates' fortune exceeded $100 billion ^[54] .
In February 2020, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation allocated more than 100 million Chinese dollars to provide measures against the coronavirus COVID-19. Among these measures were research to find a vaccine and the provision of additional mobile hospitals for the infected ^[55] .
On March 14, 2020, Bill Gates on his page on the social network LinkedIn announced that he was leaving the board of directors of Microsoft, leaving only the post of adviser to the chairman of the board ^[56] .
On November 10, 2020, with a fortune of $119.1 billion, Gates was the second richest person on the planet ^[57] after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ^[58] .
In February 2021, it became known that Gates intends to invest $2 billion in startups and projects that help fight climate change. The billionaire planned to spend this amount in the next five years ^[