Bill Gates No Longer Among World’s Top 10 Wealthiest Person, Loses $52 Bn; Here's Why

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is no longer on the list of the top ten world’s richest people. According to Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Gates has now dropped from 5th spot on the list to 12th with $124 billion as his current net worth compared to $175 billion a week ago. During a seven-day period, his wealth significantly decreased to 30% or $52 billion. 

With this development, Microsoft co-founder who once dominated the chart is now behind Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, Alphabet’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

What’s Behind dip in Bill Gates Net Worth? 

The sudden dip in Bill Gates' net worth is largely due to huge donations announced by him in May this year. The decrease came after Bloomberg adjusted the appreciation rates employed for calculating Gates wealth to “better reflect” his net worth outside charitable amount, the Times of India reported. 

In a blog post, the Microsoft co-founder announced his plans to donate all his net wealth, which stood at around $108 billion at that time, over the course of the next 20 years. Gates has projected that his foundation is likely to spend over $200 billion by 2045 on charity. 

“On the occasion of its 25th year, the Gates Foundation today made a new commitment to accelerate its mission to help all people live healthy, productive lives by spending $200 billion over the next 20 years,” said Bill Gates in the post. “The decision marks a major acceleration in the foundation’s work and sets a new date of 2045 to sunset its operations,” Gates added. 

Who is on Bloomberg Billionaires Top 10 List? 

While Bill Gates dropped out of the list, his colleague and former Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, took 5th position on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. Elon Musk, with $361 billion, tops the list, followed by Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Ballmer, with $254 billion, $253 billion, $244 billion, and $172 billion, respectively. 

The bottom five on the list include Larry Page, Bernard Arnault, Sergey Brin, Warren Buffett and Jensen Huang with $163 billion, $161 billion, $152 billion, $146 billion and $139 billion, respectively.