How Did Melinda Gates Make Her Money?

How Did Melinda Gates Make Her Money? Melinda Gates and her former husband Bill Gates stand out as two of the world’s wealthiest people dedicating their money to philanthropic causes.

After the couple divorced, she continued to support non-profits and other organizations. Her target has shifted some over the last few years, but she remains committed to using her wealth to make the world a better place.

How Did Melinda Gates Make Her Money?

It’s tempting to think that Melinda Gates made all of her money by marrying Bill Gates. In truth, she had an impressive career before meeting the Microsoft founder.

Melinda showed exceptional promise from a young age. She was the top student in her class at a small Catholic school in Dallas.

Her father, who was an aerospace engineer, gave Melinda an Apple II. She quickly developed an interest in video games and learning to write in BASIC with help from her father and a teacher who wanted to introduce young girls to computer science.

Melinda Gates, who was Melinda French at this time, attended Duke University, where she earned degrees in economics and computer science. She then earned an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Melinda Gates got a job at Microsoft almost immediately after graduating. She became a marketing manager responsible for developing several multimedia projects, including:

  • Microsoft Word
  • Microsoft Bob
  • Encarta
  • Cinemania
  • Publisher
  • Money

She was also instrumental in developing the travel booking website Expedia.

What Did Melinda Gates Do With Her Money?

Melinda Gates decided to end her work with Microsoft in 1996 to focus on raising her family. She and Bill had three children.

DBy 2000, she wanted to devote more of her time to social projects. She found a solution by starting the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda also formed a separate organization, Pivotal Ventures, that focused on economic issues affecting women.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had, and still has, a broader goal of reducing poverty and funding global healthcare initiatives.

What Does Melinda Gates Invest In?

Recently, Melinda has shifted much of her philanthropic investments from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Pivotal Ventures, an organization she founded.

Pivotal Ventures has committed $1 billion to expanding the power and influence of women in the United States. It hopes to reach this goal by dedicating funds to organizations that support:

  • Women in technology
  • Women and girls of color
  • Women in public office
  • Paid family and medical leave
  • Caregiving
  • Mental health for young people

Melinda French Gates has done such an amazing job supporting causes that she has earned the French Legion of Honour and the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.

How Does The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Make Money?

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation makes money by raising funds from donors and investing in stocks.

Warren Buffett has given the foundation a tremendous number of Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares. In 2006, he pledged to donate 10 million shares.

He most recently donated shares in July of 2018. His contribution had a $2 billion value. Buffett also encourages other wealthy people to donate, insisting that other contributions match his.

The foundation also invests its endowment funds in the stock market. It owns shares in:

The Foundation Trust Endowment managed $53.3 billion at the end of 2021.

How Did Bill Gates Create Wealth?

Bill Gates is one of the five richest people in the world. Forbes estimates that he has a net worth of about $129 billion. How did Bill Gates get so wealthy?

He started off in an upper-middle class family and attended a private school that understood the benefits of investing in technology.

Several partners pooled their money to purchase the school a computer terminal. At the time, very few people had access to this technology. Paul Allen, another major player at Microsoft and other tech companies, also attended the school and used the terminal.

Bill Gates showed an interest in building and selling products at a young age. He and Allen made a deal with technology company MITS while they were in college. The two moved to Albuquerque to continue making software for MITS machines. During this time, they formed Micro-Soft, which would eventually become the tech giant Microsoft.

A few years later, Gates secured a $16-million contract with IBM. This helped secure Microsoft as a reputable company with expertise to handle challenging products.

When Microsoft went public in 1985, Gates owned 11.1 million shares. As the share values increased, Gates became very wealthy.

Gates also has a strategic investment portfolio that includes millions of shares in:

Today, most of his money comes from returns on his investment portfolio and profits from Microsoft.

What Is Melinda Gates Net Worth?

So, is Melinda Gates a billionaire? Melinda French Gates has a fortune worth less than 10% of her ex-husband’s fortune. She has a net worth of about $10.2 billion. 

She uses her significant wealth to promote various causes, including those that impact women, healthcare, and social services.

Melinda Gates is one of the richest women in the world. Her philanthropic organizations have considerably more wealthy, but the assets don’t technically belong to her even though she has a lot of influence on how they get used.

While Melinda Gates is a billionaire, she isn’t one of the top 10 richest women in the world.

How Rich Is Melinda Gates?

Melinda Gates is very rich.

She was already earning an excellent living before she met and married Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft.

During their marriage, she was able to quit working her job to raise a family and focus on philanthropic endeavors.

She currently has a net worth of about $10.2 billion. She received about $2 billion of that total amount in the form of stocks from Bill after their divorce.

Is Melinda Gates Married?

Melinda Gates was formerly married to Microsoft founder Bill Gates. They divorced in 2021, following scrutiny focused on Bill Gates association with Jeffrey Epstein. She says that she had warned Bill not to associate with Epstein as early as 2013. Melinda and Bill had been a couple for 34 years and married for 27 years.

French Gates initiated the divorce. The couple did not have a prenup and Melinda did not request any spousal support during or after the divorce. Regardless, Bill Gates transferred $2 billion in stock to her.

Since the divorce, French Gates has described their relationship as “friendly” but maintains that they are not “friends.” More recently, she has shifted some of her attention from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Pivotal Ventures and other philanthropic groups.

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