Gates Predicts Abundance After 20 Tumultuous Years
Gates says AI brings true abundance only after about 20 tumultuous years, even in the best case, and leaves the purpose question to younger people.
Read the storyBill Gates
Microsoft co-founder; chair, Gates Foundation
Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975 and led the company through the expansion of personal computing. He later shifted his full-time focus to philanthropy and now chairs the Gates Foundation. His other work includes clean-energy innovation through Breakthrough Energy and research interests pursued through Gates Ventures. In 2025, he announced an accelerated foundation spending plan with a scheduled closure in 2045.
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At a glance
Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975 and led the company through the expansion of personal computing. He later shifted his full-time focus to philanthropy and now chairs the Gates Foundation. His other work includes clean-energy innovation through Breakthrough Energy and research interests pursued through Gates Ventures. In 2025, he announced an accelerated foundation spending plan with a scheduled closure in 2045.
- Current role
- Chair and board member, Gates Foundation
- Known for
- Microsoft; Gates Foundation; Breakthrough Energy
- Previously
- Microsoft CEO; chairman; chief software architect
- Other work
- Gates Ventures; clean energy and global health innovation
- Foundation timeline
- Accelerated spending plan announced in 2025; planned sunset in 2045
- Coverage
- Software; public health; energy; AI
Sources checked . Selected career background and milestones.
Career, in context.
Selected research, leadership and career milestones, newest first.
Accelerates the foundation’s spend-down
Gates announces a plan to substantially increase giving over the next twenty years. The foundation changes its charter and sets 2045 as the date to sunset operations.
Source: Gates Foundation ↗Leaves Microsoft’s board
Microsoft announces Gates is stepping down from its board to devote more time to philanthropy, while saying he will continue as a technology adviser to its leaders.
Source: Microsoft ↗Founds Breakthrough Energy
Gates establishes Breakthrough Energy to support innovation addressing climate change. His later first-person account describes the need to develop technologies that can reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
Source: Bill Gates / Breakthrough Energy ↗Leaves Microsoft’s day-to-day management
Gates transitions out of his daily role at Microsoft to spend more time on foundation work, while continuing as chairman for several more years.
Source: Microsoft ↗Hands Microsoft’s CEO role to Steve Ballmer
Ballmer becomes Microsoft’s second chief executive, succeeding Gates. The change marks a transition in company leadership while Gates continues working on Microsoft’s technology direction.
Source: Microsoft company history ↗Establishes the merged Gates Foundation
The William H. Gates Foundation and Gates Learning Foundation merge, creating the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates later describes its initial focus on health, education and libraries.
Source: Bill Gates ↗Microsoft goes public
Microsoft’s shares begin public trading during Gates’s leadership, a milestone in the company’s development from a young software business into a larger public corporation.
Source: Microsoft ↗Co-founds Microsoft with Paul Allen
Gates and Allen establish Microsoft to build software for the emerging personal-computer industry. Gates’s foundation biography identifies their partnership and the year the company began.
Source: Gates Foundation ↗
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