Entrepreneurs

Bill Gates Net Worth

Published

9 months ago

Jun 10, 2025

Net Worth:	$108 Billion
Age:	70
Born:	October 28, 1955
Gender:	Male
Height:	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Country of Origin:	United States of America
Source of Wealth:	Founder of Microsoft
Last Updated:	Mar 17, 2026

Table of Contents

Introduction

Bill Gates is an American entrepreneur, computer programmer, and founder of Microsoft with an estimated net worth of $108 Billion.

Gates’ shares in the company made him one of the wealthiest individuals in the world and, for an extended period, the richest person globally. He co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975, and it has since become the world’s largest PC software company.

Net Worth History

Year	Net Worth
2009	$40 Billion
2010	$53 Billion
2011	$56 Billion
2012	$61 Billion
2013	$67 Billion
2014	$76 Billion
2015	$79.2 Billion
2016	$75 Billion
2017	$86 Billion
2018	$90 Billion
2019	$96.5 Billion
2020	$98 Billion
2021	$124 Billion
2022	$129 Billion
2023	$104 Billion
2024	$124.8 Billion

Bill Gates held the title of the world’s richest man for an incredible long time, thanks to his stake in Microsoft. Back in 2009, he was worth an estimated $40 billion, and this figure increased drastically throughout the first half of the 2010s, reaching $79.2 billion in 2015. What’s interesting about Gates’ case is that he has long been committed to giving away most of his wealth to philanthropic endeavors. Once owning as much as 45% of Microsoft, Gates regularly sold shares to fund these causes, reducing his overall stake to roughly 1.34%.

Over the last decade, Microsoft has experienced exponential growth, with its market capitalization increasing from approximately $400 billion to $3.55 trillion. Thus, had Gates held onto a much larger quantity of his shares, he would likely still be the wealthiest man in the world today. Despite this, Bill Gates’ net worth has consistently increased in the past several years, crossing the $100 billion milestone in 2021. By 2022, he was estimated to be worth $129 billion. As of 2025, his net worth currently sits at $108 Billion, placing him 13th on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest billionaires. This is his lowest position on the list in almost twenty-five years.

Before Wealth & Fame

Bill Gates was born on the 28th of October 1955 in Seattle, Washington. He is the son of William H. Gates Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. The Gates family highly encouraged competition. It didn’t matter what it was; there was always a reward for winning and a penalty for losing.

When Bill was 13, he joined Lakeside School. When he was in the eighth grade, the Mothers’ Club at the school used the proceeds to purchase a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) computer for the school’s students.

Gates became interested in programming the GE system in BASIC and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. It was on that machine that he programmed his first software—a tic-tac-toe game that let players compete against the computer.

The Computer Center Corporation (CCC) eventually banned Gates for the summer after it caught him and three friends exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.

The four students formed the Lakeside Programmers Club to earn some money. At the end of the ban, they offered to find bugs in CCC’s software in exchange for computer time. This was when Gates began to study coding. It was also during this time that he coded the school’s class scheduling system. Initially, he did it together with Kent Evans, but unfortunately, he was killed in a mountain climbing accident at the end of their junior year, so Allen stepped in.

During their senior year, Allen and Gates founded their first company, Traf-O-Data. They made traffic counters on the Intel 8008 processor.

In 1973, he was accepted into Harvard. During his university studies, he developed the BASIC programming language for the world’s first PC, the MITS Altair. However, Gates dropped out just a few years later without finishing his degree so that he and Paul Allen could focus on founding Microsoft.

Microsoft

Gates’ career started a little bit sneakily. He contacted MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), saying that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for them. In reality, however, they didn’t even start coding it. They just wanted to spark their interest.

Once the demo date was set, Gates and others developed an Altair emulator that ran on a microcomputer and served as the primary interpreter. The presentation was successful, and the interpreter was distributed as Altair BASIC. Their partnership was named “Micro-Soft.”

In 1976, they dropped the hyphen and became just Microsoft, trademarking the name. That same year, they became independent from MITS.

In 1985, Gates and Allen launched the first retail version of Microsoft Windows. When Bill and Paul Allen started Microsoft, they had a vision of putting a computer in every home. At the time, that vision seemed way too ridiculous. The company achieved great success from the outset. Just two years after its founding, Bill Gates and Paul Allen opened their first international office in Japan. They also relocated from Albuquerque to Washington.

Although his vision seemed impossible to achieve at the time, it has become a reality in many parts of the world today, and personal technology is integral to society. His dedication to the company’s success is admirable—for the first few years, Gates personally reviewed every line of code they shipped, and, if necessary, rewrote it.

Bill is passionate about Microsoft’s work and will continue to be involved with the company, including his current role as a member of the board and technology advisor. However, he left his position as CEO of Microsoft in 2008. He continued to be Microsoft’s Chairman until 2020.

These days, Bill focuses most of his time on his and his ex-wife’s work through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which aims to improve global health, medical research, education, and gender equality. People are often surprised to hear him say that this work has many similarities with his work at Microsoft. In both cases, he brings together intelligent people and collaborates with them to solve big, challenging problems.

Personal Life

Gates married Melinda French, now Melinda Gates, in 1994 on the Hawaiian Island of Lanai. She was a Microsoft employee working in the product development division. She and Gates met at one of the company’s dinners, and soon enough, Gates asked her out.

Melinda continued to work for Microsoft until 1996, eventually becoming the General Manager of Information Products. The couple has three children: Phoebe Adele, Rory John, and Jennifer Katharine. In 2021, they announced their separation after nearly thirty years together.

Despite being divorced, they remain co-chairs of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which was founded in 2000 after he and his wife combined three family foundations. At the time, it was the world’s largest transparently operated charitable foundation.

In 2010, Gates and his wife, Melinda Gates, signed a document they called the Giving Pledge, in which they promised to give at least half of their wealth to charity over time.

How Does Bill Gates Spend His Money?

With all that money available to him, you might wonder, “How does billionaire Bill Gates spend his wealth?” While he agreed to give all his wealth (or at least half of it away) by signing the Giving Pledge, there are some things that the Microsoft co-founder splurged on.

Bill Gates owns an impressive compound in Medina, close to Lake Washington. Gates purchased it in 1998 for $2 million; as of today, the property is worth more than $120 million. Some amenities you can find there include a 60-square-foot swimming pool with an underwater music system, a 2,500-square-foot gym, and a 1,000-square-foot dining room. He also has a property in California, the 228-acre Rancho Paseana, which includes a racetrack and five barns.

Gates reportedly owns a private jet, the Bombardier BD-700 Global Express, worth approximately $40 million.

His fortune is managed by Cascade Investment, a holding company formed with proceeds from Microsoft stock sales and dividends. Gates used it to make numerous investments, including partial ownership of the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco (with several other unnamed buyers). According to The Wall Street Journal, Gates owns nearly half of Four Seasons Holdings’ hotel chain.

The company owns stakes in several publicly traded companies, including Canadian National Railway. Finally, Gates launched a $1 billion investment fund called “Breakthrough Energy” with several others.

Entrepreneurs

Steve Ballmer Net Worth

Published

3 months ago

Dec 15, 2025

Dan Western

Net Worth:	$120.1 Billion
Age:	67
Born:	March 24, 1956
Gender:	Male
Height:	1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)
Country of Origin:	United States of America
Source of Wealth:	Businessman
Last Updated:	February 15, 2024

Table of Contents

Introduction

Steve Ballmer is an American investor, businessman, and philanthropist with an estimated net worth of $120.1 Billion.

Ballmer built his net worth during his thirty-four-year career at Microsoft, having joined the company when it was worth just a few million dollars. He served as the chief executive officer for fourteen years, earning an average of $1.2 million/year in compensation. His initial 8% stake in the company has since been reduced to less than 4%, with shares worth well over $3.2 billion sold during his tenure.

Since retiring, Ballmer has acquired the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team and begun focusing more heavily on philanthropic efforts with his wife, Connie Snyder. In this profile, we’ll discuss our research on Steve Ballmer’s net worth history, his career at Microsoft, his salary and earnings, and other factors that have shaped his wealth over time.

Quick Facts

Previously held an 8% stake in Microsoft
Earned $17.1 million in salary as CEO of the company
Paid $2 billion to acquire the Los Angeles Lakers NBA team

Net Worth History

Net Worth:	$120.1 Billion
Age:	67
Born:	March 24, 1956
Gender:	Male
Height:	1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)
Country of Origin:	United States of America
Source of Wealth:	Businessman
Last Updated:	February 15, 2024

Since nearly all of Steve Ballmer’s wealth was generated through his 8% stake in Microsoft, his net worth history can be tracked relatively easily. In 1986, Microsoft launched its IPO, which skyrocketed Microsoft’s valuation, giving it a market capitalization of $777 million. This gave Ballmer a net worth of roughly $62 million at the time.

By the end of 1990, the company’s market cap had grown to $4.8 billion, increasing the value of his stake to $384 million. In 2000, his stake had grown to an enormous $46.9 billion, but the dot-com bust wiped out over 60% of the company’s valuation in a matter of months. Ballmer often sold shares of Microsoft regularly. The most notable of which was in 2003, when he sold 39.3 million shares for $955 million. This reportedly reduced his ownership stake to 4%.

In 2009, Ballmer’s net worth was estimated at approximately $11 billion. A year later, he reportedly sold more than 83.1 million Microsoft shares across five transactions, totaling more than $2.2 billion. However, it appears he’s been quiet on the trading front since then, with his net worth continuing to increase as Microsoft’s market cap grows.

In 2015, he was worth approximately $21.5 billion; by 2019, he was worth $41.2 billion, and by 2022, $91.4 billion. As of 2025, Steve Ballmer is estimated to be worth approximately $120.1 Billion.

Microsoft

In 1980, Steve Ballmer became Microsoft’s 30th employee, taking on the role of business manager. Upon joining, he received an 8% stake in the company and an initial reported base salary of $50,000/year. He helped oversee the Windows and Office franchises during the late 1980s and 1990s and helped launch Windows 95.

When Bill Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2000, Ballmer took his place and led the company until 2014. During this time, Microsoft had some of its most successful years, launching Windows XP, Windows 7, and, most notably, its Xbox gaming console. In 2000, Microsoft reported annual revenues of $25 billion; by the time Ballmer stepped down, this figure had tripled to $78 billion.

Acquisitions

As CEO, Ballmer also led some of the company’s most notorious acquisitions, both good and bad. In 2007, they acquired aQuantive for $6.3 billion to compete with Google in digital advertising. Just five years later, Microsoft effectively wrote off $6.2 billion and admitted its failure.

In 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion, perhaps one of the more successful acquisitions during Ballmer’s reign as CEO. In 2013, they also acquired Nokia for $7.2 billion, hoping to compete in the smartphone market, but it again had to be marked down as a multi-billion-dollar write-off.

Microsoft Salary

Year	Base Salary	Bonus	Total
2000	$600,000	$200,000	$800,000
2001	$656,000	$374,500	$1,030,000
2002	$656,000	$324,500	$980,500
2003	$700,000	$400,000	$1,100,000
2004	$901,000	$175,000	$1,080,000
2005	$605,000	$620,000	$1,230,000
2006	$616,667	$350,000	$966,667
2007	$620,000	$700,000	$1,320,000
2008	$640,833	$700,000	$1,340,000
2009	$665,833	$700,000	$1,370,000
2010	$682,500	$670,000	$1,350,000
2011	$682,500	$682,500	$1,370,000
2012	$685,000	$620,000	$1,300,000
2013	$700,000	$550,000	$1,260,000
2014	$500,000	$375,000	$875,000
Totals:	$9,950,000	$7,140,000	$17,090,000

Ballmer never had a particularly high salary during his time at Microsoft, at least compared to his overall net worth today. We already mentioned his starting salary of $50,000/year, but how about as CEO?

From 2000 to 2014, as Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer received an annual base salary ranging from $600,000 to $700,000. The only two outliers from this range were in 2004, when he received $901,000, and 2014, which wasn’t a full calendar year. Ballmer also earned an annual bonus, ranging from $175,000 in 2004 to $700,000 (in multiple years). His average annual bonus as CEO was roughly $510,000.

Overall, this meant he earned between $800,000 and $1.2 million annually for the first seven years. This was followed by earnings of between $1.26 million and $1.37 million annually from 2007 to 2013. He’s estimated to have earned $17.1 million in compensation as the CEO.

Los Angeles Clippers Acquisition

Upon leaving Microsoft in 2014, Ballmer acquired the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion. Several bids were placed to purchase the team after Donald Sterling, the previous owner, was caught on tape making racist comments and was banned for life by the NBA. Ballmer’s bid was the highest, closing his acquisition of the team. At the time, the purchase was considered an incredibly high-risk move, with professional valuations of the Clippers coming in at under $1 billion.

However, in recent years, his investment has paid off significantly, with the team’s value more than doubling in the last five years. Recent estimates place the club’s value at $5.5 billion, generating $353 million in revenue over the past twelve months.

Entrepreneurs

Dave Portnoy Net Worth

Published

3 months ago

Dec 15, 2025

John Mulder

Net Worth:	$120 Million
Age:	48
Born:	March 22, 1977
Gender:	Male
Height:	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Country of Origin:	United States of America
Source of Wealth:	Entrepreneur
Last Updated:	Mar 18, 2026

Table of Contents

Introduction

Dave Portnoy is an American entrepreneur and sports media personality with an estimated net worth of $120 Million.

Quick Facts

Filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2004
Sold Barstool Sports to Penn National Gaming for $600+ million
Bought back the company for just $1 in 2023
Lost as much as $500,000 betting on a single game of football
Holds a real estate portfolio valued at nearly $100 million

Early Financial Issues

While studying at the University of Michigan for a degree in education, Dave Portnoy founded TheGamblingMan, a sports betting website. He used the website to publish his weekly picks, a forerunner of his move into sports media and online newspapers.

This is important to note because Portnoy has always been “The Gambling Man,” pun intended. According to reports, several years after graduating, he owed roughly $77,000 in gambling debts. Roughly $59,000 of this debt was owed to credit card companies, and the additional $18,000 came from a loan from his father. As a result, he was forced to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2004.

Portnoy still gambles extensively today, often betting as much as $500,000 on a single game. In fact, he’s mentioned in past interviews that his biggest loss was half a million dollars on a college football game between Virginia Tech and North Carolina. The difference is that today he has hundreds of millions of dollars to his name. Thus, he’s unlikely to ever need to file for bankruptcy again.

Barstool Sports

Barstool was the natural evolution of TheGamblingMan. Dave Portnoy launched Barstool in 2003, which initially was a free print newspaper in the Boston, Massachusetts area. The newspaper provided readers with sports news and Portnoy’s gambling picks, primarily focusing on Boston-based teams. This included the likes of:

NFL – New England Patriots
MLB – Boston Red Sox
NBA – Boston Celtics
NHL – Boston Bruins

In its earlier years, the Barstool newspaper was marketed and distributed at local subway stations and sports bars, before the official website, BarstoolSports.com, launched. The company recognized the growth of the internet and quickly began using blogging and social media to build its fan base of “Stoolies.” During this era, several figures led the charge, including Dan “Big Cat” Katz, Kevin “KFC” Clancy, and Alex Cooper.

Revenue Sources

Today, Barstool Sports has over 200 million social media followers and hosts hundreds of shows, including One Bite, Wake Up Barstool, Barstool Radio, Big Boys Club, and Fantasy Football Factory. The company generates income predominantly through advertising revenue, brand sponsors, merchandising, and additional partnerships.

The Chernin Group Acquisition

In January 2016, Dave Portnoy sold a 51% stake of Barstool to The Chernin Group, in a deal valued at between $10 million and $15 million. This was the first outside investment that Barstool had received, helping drastically increase its growth rate. Some reports suggest that the Chernin Group later invested an additional $15 million in 2018, bringing their total investment to $25 million. Their stake was also reportedly increased to 60%.

Despite selling a majority stake of Barstool, Portnoy retained full creative control, deciding which content would and wouldn’t be published on Barstool outlets.

Penn National Gaming Acquisition

When Penn National Gaming acquired a 36% stake in Barstool Sports in early 2020, the deal valued the company at approximately $450 million. Penn paid $163 million for its stake, including $23 million for convertible preferred stock in Penn Gaming. When converted, this stock equated to 0.5% of the company’s market cap.

However, following its investment in Barstool, Penn Gaming’s stock price went on quite the rollercoaster ride. Days after the announcement, it was trading at $38 per share. In the midst of the 2020 pandemic, the price crashed to $7 per share. Between May 2020 and March 2021, Penn Gaming’s share price exploded to $130 per share.

During this time, the company’s market cap peaked at roughly $20 billion. Given that Portnoy reportedly received one-third of the 0.5% stake in Penn Gaming, his share was potentially worth as much as $33 million. Of course, there’s no telling whether or when he sold the stock, or how much he sold it for.

At this point, Dave Portnoy and several Barstool executives held a combined 28% stake in the company. The Chernin Group owned a 36% stake, and Penn Gaming the remaining 36%.

Final Acquisition

Shortly thereafter, Penn National Gaming increased its stake in Barstool to 50%, reportedly paying an additional $62 million. In 2022, the company acquired the other half of Bartstool for a reported $387 million, valuing the entire company at $774 million.

Barstool Sports Buyback

By the grace of the gods, Dave Portnoy was blessed with an incredible opportunity in August 2023. At the time, Penn National Gaming had just signed a 10-year, $2 billion betting partnership contract with ESPN that would see them help launch ESPN Bet. However, the network didn’t want to be associated with the Barstool brand, and under the terms of the deal, requested that Penn exit Barstool Sports.

The company was willing to take an $850 million loss on Barstool to make the $2 billion ESPN deal possible, and thus, they presented Portnoy with an opportunity.

Penn Gaming would sell the company back to Dave Portnoy for just $1, under one condition: they would receive 50% of the proceeds if he decided to sell Barstool again in the future. The founder also signed a non-compete preventing him from working with any other betting company.

Real Estate

Since selling (and technically reacquiring) Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy has invested a significant chunk of his wealth into real estate.

In September 2023, Dave paid $42 million for two properties in Nantucket, Massachusetts, totaling 1.2 acres. This transaction was reported in the media as the “most expensive home in Massachusetts history,” which is slightly misleading, since the purchase wasn’t for a single home. The two properties combined comprise 8,625 square feet of living space, six bedrooms, and eleven bathrooms.

More recently, in October 2025, the founder of Barstool Sports acquired a 10,228-square-foot, eight-bedroom, ten-bathroom mansion in Ismorada, Florida. He splurged $27.8 million on the property, which also broke a local sales record.

Entrepreneurs

Peter Woo Net Worth

Peter Woo may be one of the richest men in Hong Kong, but just how much is he worth today?

Published

6 months ago

Oct 1, 2025

Dan Western

Net Worth:	$13 Billion
Age:	77
Born:	September 5, 1946
Gender:	Male
Height:	Unknown
Country of Origin:	China
Source of Wealth:	Entrepreneur
Last Updated:	January 22, 2024

Table of Contents

Introduction

Peter Woo is a Hong Kong billionaire businessman with an estimated net worth of $12.5 Billion.

Net Worth History

Year	Net Worth
2016	$6.6 Billion
2017	$10.5 Billion
2018	$12.2 Billion
2019	$10.8 Billion
2020	$11.5 Billion
2021	$18 Billion
2022	$17 Billion
2023	$15.8 Billion
2024	$15.1 Billion
2025	$12.5 Billion

Peter Woo’s net worth is primarily derived from his controlling stake in Wheelock & Company Limited, which is approximately just 18%, based on a December 2019 filing. He previously controlled as much as 60.51% of the company. The company was privatized in 2021; therefore, we’re unable to obtain an accurate valuation for 2025. That said, valuation history is available for the years from 2001 to 2020. During this period, Wheelock & Co.’s market capitalization increased significantly from $2.23 billion to $16.23 billion.

In 2016, the company was worth approximately $11.43 billion, with Peter Woo’s net worth estimated at $6.6 billion. At the time, his fortune was largely tied to the company’s value. By 2018, Woo was worth an estimated $12.2 billion, but experienced a brief decline during the business restructuring.

Following privatization, Peter Woo’s net worth skyrocketed to approximately $18 billion, but it has been slowly dipping ever since. This is due to several factors, the majority of which have impacted the real estate portion of the business. One such factor is the weakening relationship between Hong Kong and Mainland China, which impacts a wide variety of Hong Kong-based companies.

As a result, Woo’s net worth is currently estimated to be in the realm of $12.5 Billion.

Before Wealth & Fame

Peter Woo was educated at St. Stephen’s College, a government-funded boarding school and Hong Kong’s largest secondary school. He went on to earn his bachelor’s degree, majoring in physics, from the University of Cincinnati in the United States and became the senior class president.

Shortly after, he obtained his MBA from Columbia Business School and then worked at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York and Hong Kong after graduating. Like many of the richest people in the world, Woo started relatively small before working his way up to become a billionaire.

Banking & Real Estate

While working for Chase Manhattan Bank, Peter Woo met his future wife, Bessie, the sister of the woman he was arranged to marry. Later, Woo moved on to work for Wharf Holdings, a Hong Kong-based real estate and infrastructure company, which helped him earn his fortune.

He eventually took over as managing director of Wheelock Properties, a subsidiary of Wharf Holdings, and helped the company achieve lasting success. Like Joseph Lau, the real estate industry proved to be perfect for Peter Woo, and he excelled in the business thanks to his keen sense.

Due to his diverse interests, Woo began focusing on real estate specifically in Hong Kong, Singapore, and China. His group owns several investment properties in the region, such as Harbour City and Times Square in Hong Kong.

Additional Businesses

Along with Wheelock Properties, Peter Woo helped operate numerous other businesses, including i-Cable Communications and Wharf New T&T. He also owns the private high-end luxury retail group LCJG, which comprises the fashion house Joyce and Lane Crawford.

Lane Crawford has been a highly successful retail company, operating in China since 1850, and is now part of the Joyce Group. Of course, overseeing some of the most popular online brands and real estate operations isn’t enough for Woo because he likes being busy. In addition to these businesses, he also sits on the boards of numerous other Fortune 500 companies, which demonstrates his significant influence.

Boards, Politics & Non-Profits

Peter Woo serves on the advisory boards of numerous Fortune 500 companies, including JPMorgan Chase, one of the world’s largest banks. He is also a member of the advisory board for General Electric, an American multinational corporation with several divisions, including energy and aerospace.

Additionally, Woo is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. This is an advisory body in China, and its members advise on and propose solutions to social and political issues. For his work, the Government of Hong Kong appointed Woo to be a Justice of the Peace in 1993, and in 98 he was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star.

Past Ventures

As one of the wealthiest individuals in Asia, Peter Woo has held numerous prominent positions throughout his career. From 1993 to 1997, he served as chairman of the Council of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He was also the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Environment and Conservation Fund Committee, serving in that position from 1994 to 2004. Woo has also been the chairman of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.

In 1996, he became directly involved in politics, running in the first Hong Kong Chief Executive Election before the colony was handed over to Chinese rule.

Most recently, he made headlines calling for an end to travel restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While he remains active in business, in 2013, he appointed his son, Douglas Woo, as the managing director of Wheelock in 2013.