Bill Gates out of world’s 10 richest man list as his net worth falls 30% in 7 days; he is replaced by Microsoft‘s former CEO

Bill Gates has dropped out of the top ten on the world's richest list, with his net worth now calculated as less than that of his former assistant and successor as Microsoft's former CEO, Steve Ballmer. This change comes after a recalculation to reflect Gates' substantial charitable giving. Gates' fortune was reduced by about $52 billion, almost by 30% this week. This recalculation shrank his net worth from over $175 billion to $124 billion, moving him from fifth to twelfth place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Steve Ballmer

, with a net worth of $172 billion, replaced Gates in the fifth spot. Gates now also trails Alphabet co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and longtime friend and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett in the rankings. Bloomberg stated that it adjusted the appreciation rates used in calculating his wealth to "better reflect Gates' outside charitable giving and the wealth estimate" that Gates provided in a blog post in May.

What Bill Gates said in his blog

In the blog post, Bill Gates noted that his net worth was $108 billion and committed to donating nearly all of it through the Gates Foundation over the next two decades. He projected that the foundation would spend more than $200 billion before closing by the end of 2045.

As per the Gates Foundation’s website, Gates and his former wife, Melinda French Gates, had contributed a combined total of $60 billion to the foundation by the end of December 2024, while Warren Buffett has donated $43 billion.Gates currently holds about 1% of Microsoft and has received over $60 billion in stock and dividends from the company, Bloomberg reported. The majority of his wealth is now managed by Cascade Investment, a holding firm with interests in real estate, energy, and both private and public companies.As per the report, Ballmer is now wealthier than Gates, which is an unusual feat for a former employee compared to the company’s founder. This is largely due to an early compensation deal at Microsoft that transitioned from profit-sharing to equity. Ballmer became CEO in 2000 and left in 2014 with a 4% stake in the company. As Microsoft’s stock has surged over the past decade, his wealth has grown significantly. He currently owns the Los Angeles Clippers and once shared about his decision to retain his Microsoft shares while Gates and

Paul Allen

diversified.