Rise to Fame
He dropped out of Harvard at 19 to co-found Microsoft. Five years later, when IBM needed an operating system for its first PC, Gates structured the deal most companies wouldn't have thought to: he bought an OS from a local company for $50,000, licensed it to IBM, and kept the rights to sell it to anyone else. Every IBM-compatible PC that shipped paid Microsoft a royalty. The industry didn't realize how thoroughly they'd been outmaneuvered until it was far too late.
In the Spotlight
After stepping back from Microsoft in 2008, he's been trying to fix global health with the Gates Foundation's checkbook. The foundation has distributed more than $100 billion since 2000. In 2025, he announced plans to spend roughly $200 billion more and close the foundation by 2045. Global health experts credit real progress on malaria and polio. Critics call it 'philanthrocapitalism,' concentrated wealth deciding global priorities without accountability. The Epstein story complicates all of it. Epstein case files released by the DOJ in early 2026 revealed foundation employees had engaged with him, even as the foundation denied any financial relationship was ever created.
Side Notes
The high school story is telling: when his school hired him to write the scheduling software, he reportedly edited the code to put himself in classes with 'interesting girls.' The instinct to find the leverage point carried all the way to the IBM deal. In 1994, he spent $30.8 million at auction for the Codex Leicester, Leonardo da Vinci's scientific notebooks. He was also arrested in Albuquerque in 1977 for running a red light without a driver's license. The mugshot exists.