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[fluffydelusions]

Bill Gates, the world's richest man, has donated $4.6bn (£3.6bn) in the Microsoft founder's biggest gift to charity since he set up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates donated 64m Microsoft shares according to a US Securities & Exchange Commission filing. The recipient of the gift was not specified but it is expected that the money will be directed to the foundation he and his wife set up in 2000 with $5bn funding to improve global healthcare and reduce extreme poverty. The foundation did not respond to requests for comment.

The shares donated represent about 5% of his current $90bn fortune. The gift reduces Gates's stake in Microsoft, which the 61-year-old co-founded in 1975, to just 1.3% from 24% in 1996.

This latest donation is the biggest charitable gift made anywhere in the world so far this year, overtaking a $3.2bn contribution by investor Warren Buffett to the Gates foundation last month.

In 2010 the Gates and Warren Buffett created the Giving Pledge, a promise to give at least half of their wealth to charity, and called on other billionaires to join them. More than 170 of the world's richest people, including Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg and George Lucas, have so far signed up.

Gates said the pledge was ”about building on a wonderful tradition of philanthropy that will ultimately help the world become a much better place".

Last year the billionaire told ITV's This Morning that it was ”not a favour" to give his three children huge sums. ”It distorts anything they might do, creating their own path.

”This money is dedicated to helping the poorest. They know that, they are proud of that, they go on trips with us to see the work that's being done."

Gates has been the richest man on the planet since 2013 – apart from a very brief blip last month when Amazon's Jeff Bezos overtook him for a couple of hours as the technology company's shares spiked before falling back.

Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1994, is worth $84.3bn and has seen his fortune increase by $18.9bn so far this year according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index. Bezos, who has used his wealth to invest in space travel and to buy the Washington Post, has not signed up to the Giving Pledge. Bezos has said that in matters of philanthropy he is drawn to the ”right now", rather than the long-term, approach.

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...-charity-donation-microsoft-shares-foundation

 

[Khaos Kontrol]

Damn. Good on him. Very generous man.

 

[Spinluck]

I think Bill Gates is cool.

 

[Jarrod38]

Crazy he can donate 4.6 billion and be like no big deal.

 

[BlackGoku03]

Amazing. Good on him. We need more positive news.

 

[tirminyl]

For some reason, I thought the OP accidentally put billion instead of million. I was wrong. Wow!

Keep doing that work, Bill.

 

[BronsonLee]

Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, has donated $4.6bn (£3.6bn) in the Microsoft founder’s biggest gift to charity since he set up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Oh wow, that's incredibl-

This latest donation is the biggest charitable gift made anywhere in the world so far this year, overtaking a $3.2bn contribution by investor Warren Buffett to the Gates foundation last month.

IT'S A SHELL GAME

 

[Haines]

Need more people like him, thats insane.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

Come on, Warren! You can't let Bill top ya. Let's see you beat it! (for a good cause)

 

[JettDash]

Oh wow, that's incredibl-



IT'S A SHELL GAME

Is this a joke? He gave his personal money to the charity he and his wife run. How is that a shell game?

 

[Seik]

Fuck yes.

Good on you, Bill, such a monstruous amount of money ought to change a lot of lives for the better.

 

[cdyhybrid]

Can't believe he's only 61. He'll be around for a while more continuing to do great work.

 

[oddj0b]

This is great news. He makes almost 2million per HOUR FYI

 

[Parch]

The Warren Buffet documentary is pretty good. Humble guy living in the same house since the 50's. Him and Gates becoming buddies.

Say what you want about capitalism and how ridiculously rich people can become, but when they form foundations and give billions to help the world, it can be a good thing.

 

[Hazmat]

Bill Gates is the man.

 

[starsky]

Awesome news.
It's nice to see this amongst all the negative happenings lately.

 

[Fat4all]

thats a lot of sheetz hotdogs

 

[Phased]

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has done a lot of good in the world. According to a quick Google search, it's given away 35 billion in grants for a huge list of things from hunger to internet access.

He's also giving away most of his money when he dies instead of passing it on to his kids. While it's naive to think he's not leaving his kids ANYTHING, they won't inherit his billions (if he hasn't given it all away by then)

 

[The JT]

Great news. Bill Gates is amazing.

 

[theWB27]

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has done a lot of good in the world. According to a quick Google search, it's given away 35 billion in grants for a huge list of things from hunger to internet access.

He's also giving away most of his money when he dies instead of passing it on to his kids. While it's naive to think he's not leaving his kids ANYTHING, they won't inherit his billions (if he hasn't given it all away by then)

Him and buffet don't want to create a dynasty. I can dig it.

 

[JettDash]

Bill Gates would be worth well over $100 billion if he didn't give money to charity.

 

[Lamel]

He has the right idea. Once you die, all of this money isn't going to mean anything. He has so much that he can give a shit ton to his kids and still give away billions.

Awesome move.

 

[Andrew Korenchkin]

Love Bill Gates. What a guy.

 

[yuoke]

Bill Gates is a really awesome dude.

 

[Orbis Tabula]

Billionaire charity dick measuring contests are the best kind of dick measuring contests. I hope the money is being put to good use. Endless praise for anyone who gives away huge sums of their personal wealth. Tenfold praise if they don't wait until they're dead to do it.

 

[Rentahamster]

Nice one, Bill.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Oh wow, that's incredibl-



IT'S A SHELL GAME

Shitty post is shitty.


Good on Gates

 

[JettDash]

Billionaire charity dick measuring contests are the best kind of dick measuring contests. I hope the money is being put to good use. Endless praise for anyone who gives away huge sums of their personal wealth. Tenfold praise if they don't wait until they're dead to do it.

He's basically dedicating the rest of his life to making sure almost all of his fortune is put to good charitable use. And he's obviously a competent guy.

 

[TheContact]

Just to put into perspective how much a billion is...

One million seconds is 15.5 days
A billion seconds is 31.7 years

 

[Earthbound64]

Say what you want about capitalism and how ridiculously rich people can become, but when they form foundations and give billions to help the world, it can be a good thing.

But then we have people dismissing it like:

Crazy he can donate 4.6 billion and be like no big deal.

 

[PaulloDEC]

It's nice to know that even with all of the truly shitty nerds in the world there's still some wonderful ones too.

Bill is going to leave this world having done a hell of a lot of good.

 

[Foxxsoxx]

What a fuckin amazing man.

Thank you Gates ol chap.

 

[Orbis Tabula]

He's basically dedicating the rest of his life to making sure almost all of his fortune is put to good charitable use. And he's obviously a competent guy.

Oh, yeah. I'm a huge fan of what he's doing. I'd like to think I could be a tenth as charitable in his position.

 

[Qvoth]

yeah heard this yesterday, literally insane
he should be honorary american president or UN secretary general or some shit

 

[Van Bur3n]

Jesus that's a lot of money.

 

[WedgeX]

They may actually cure diseases through their foundation. What an amazing organization they have built.

 

[Alcotholic]

Hopefully it'll be a nice booster shot for the poor.
Bill gates has been generous many times. I wish I could say the same for other super wealthy.

 

[Estoc]

Such an inspiration, if I ever enter the super rich status, this is definitely what I would be doing for the rest of my life.

Spoiler

I will never join the super rich club. #TeamForeverPoor

 

[Zasa]

Cool, but how much is that in Neymar's?

 

[EchoChamber]

That's almost two minecrafts.

 

[cdyhybrid]

That's almost two minecrafts.

Did someone say Minecraft?

 

[Lum1n3s]

Love the fact that he isn't passing much down like Jackie Chan is to their kids. Work for that shit because all of that money or most of it anyways is being donated to charities when they dead.

 

[GTI Guy]

Gates donated more in a day than Trump has earned in his life. SAD

 

[Bitanator]

He can donate 50 billion and still be worth 40 billion, dude is rich as fuck but he is being great about donating his money away

 

[JCHandsom]

Is this a joke? He gave his personal money to the charity he and his wife run. How is that a shell game?

Getta load of this guy

EDIT:

Spoiler

it's a joke