Bill Gates Just Gave Away $4.6 Billion, His Biggest Donation Since 2000

Securities and Exchange Commission filings released Monday show that Gates donated 64 million Microsoft shares—valued at $4.6 billion—in early June to an undisclosed recipient. Those shares could be headed anywhere, but the best bet is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which among many fine and admirable projects, is educating women and combating infectious diseases in poor, rural areas of the world. (In December, Gates said he thought the world was “vulnerable” to a deadly outbreak because medical tools and research were not up to date.)

In 1999, Gates gave away $16 billion in Microsoft shares, and in 2000, $5.1 billion in shares, Bloomberg reports. That makes the June donation his biggest since 2000, as well as the biggest share donation in 2017 among very rich and philanthropic men. Warren Buffet comes in second.

As of now, Gates’s Microsoft shares account for only a 1.3 percent stake in the company, and his fortune at an approximated $86.1 billion. Jeff Bezos is once again in spitting distance of being the richest human in the world. But Jeff Bezos didn’t just give away 5 percent of his fortune to charity.

Article Appeared @http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/money/news/a57010/bill-gates-biggest-donation-billion/

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