Bill Gates Turns 69: 5 Things You Might Not Know About Microsoft Co-Founder

Best known as the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates is one of the richest people in the world who still works on many projects, including advising his former company and recently making a docuseries on technology for streaming giant Netflix.

Gates served as Microsoft’s CEO from 1975 to 2000 before stepping down to focus more on philanthropic efforts. These included founding the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 with his then-wife, Melinda French Gates.

Today, Gates serves as a technology advisor to Microsoft, providing input on the company's latest technology advancements, including in the field of artificial intelligence.

Here are five things you might not know about Gates in honor of his Oct. 28 birthday.

1. First Company At Age 15: While at Lakeside School, Gates became good friends with Paul Allen, his future Microsoft co-founder. Despite strong disagreements and clashes, the two spent much of their free time together. At 15, Gates along with Allen created "Traf O Data," a computer program that monitored traffic patterns in Seattle. The pair collected $20,000 for their efforts and continued to work together.

2. Magazine Started It All: Allen showed Gates an article on the Altair 8800 mini-computer kit in Popular Electronics magazine. That article led to the two contacting the company and developing software. The two were hired by MITS and founded Microsoft after demoing their work and creating products for MITS. Microsoft's name was a combination of the words "micro-computer" and "software." The first Microsoft product was BASIC software for the Altair computer.

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3. Richest Man For Many Years: Creating a company like Microsoft helped Gates build great wealth along the way. In 1986, Microsoft completed its initial price offering for $21 making Gates a millionaire with 45% ownership of the company. By 1987, Gates was a billionaire after shares split several times and hit new highs of $90.75.

From 1993 to 2007, Gates topped the Forbes Richest People in the World list before being beaten out by Warren Buffett in 2008. Gates topped the list 18 times. In 2024, Bloomberg ranked Gates the sixth-richest person in the world, worth an estimated $160 billion.

4. Monopoly Accusations: As a kid one of Gates’s favorite games was Monopoly. Ironically, Gates spent part of the 1990s defending Microsoft from monopolistic business accusations from the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department. Many of the accusations came from Microsoft having deals with computer manufacturers to have Microsoft items pre-installed and only run compatible with those programs.

Microsoft was almost broken up into two companies, one covering operating systems and one covering software. Microsoft settled to avoid a breakup. In a 2024 interview with The Verge, Gates said he wouldn't have done anything different while leading Microsoft, but acknowledged the company and his life could have been different if the company was broken up.

“It’s hard to speculate on those things. I mean, whichever part of the company I went with would have thrived, I think," Gates said.

5. Mother on Board of Directors: Gates' mother Mary became a role model in the world of business for the Microsoft co-founder and may have helped pave the way with a future collaborator. In 1975, Mary Gates became the first woman president of the United Way in King Country and the first woman director of the First Interstate Bank in Seattle.

Mary Gates also served on the United Way Executive Committee with International Business Machines’ IBM President John Opel. This connection paved the way for Bill Gates to establish a relationship with IBM, which played a crucial role in Microsoft's ascent.

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This article was previously published by Benzinga and has been updated.

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