Bill Gates Suffers Biggest Billionaire Loss of 2025 as Net Worth Drops $40 Bln

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, ranked as the biggest financial loser among global billionaires in 2025, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Gates’ net worth fell by $40.4 billion this year, pushing him down to 15th place among the world’s wealthiest individuals, with an estimated fortune of $118 billion.

The drop comes despite another strong year for Microsoft: the company’s market value rose 14.5% in 2025, reaching $3.545 trillion, securing its position as the world’s fourth-largest firm by market capitalization, according to CompaniesMarketCap data.

Microsoft reported $245 billion in revenue for 2024, and although Gates still owns roughly 1% of the company, his lifetime dividends and share proceeds exceed $60 billion. The bulk of his wealth, however, is managed through Cascade Investment, his private investment firm, which holds stakes in dozens of publicly traded companies including Canadian National Railway, Deere & Co., and Ecolab.

The decline in Gates’ reported wealth is not linked to stock losses. Instead, it stems from a methodological update by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which revised its calculations to better reflect Gates’ long-term philanthropic commitments and the value of assets already transferred to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The adjustment provides a more accurate picture of how much of Gates’ fortune has been effectively removed from his personal control due to his sustained giving.

Gates continues to donate enormous sums to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world’s most influential philanthropic institutions.

In a May 2025 blog post, Gates reaffirmed his plan to donate nearly all of his wealth over the next two decades. The foundation is expected to spend more than $200 billion by 2045, targeting global health, education, and poverty reduction.

Beyond this year’s accounting revision, Gates’ fortune has been significantly reshaped by his 2021 divorce from Melinda French Gates, which transferred tens of billions of dollars in assets to his former spouse, another major factor in the long-term reduction of his net worth.

Despite the sharp headline decline, Gates remains one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in global philanthropy, and one of the few billionaires actively and systematically working to give away the majority of his fortune.