Bill Gates Foundation dumps Apple and 50 other companies
In the fourth quarter of 2023, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust dumped its stake in several large companies, including Apple, Meta, Google-owner Alphabet, Amazon and Nvidia.
This was revealed in Berkshire’s 13F filing with the SEC, which is required for all investors who manage over $100 million in funds.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his former wife, Melinda Gates, started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000.
In 2006, the foundation’s trustees established a two-entity structure that separated the program work from the investment of the foundation’s assets.
The two entities are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which distributes money to grantees, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, which manages the endowment assets and funds the foundation.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust currently holds 24 stocks.
Warren Buffett-owned Berkshire Hathaway has been the trust’s top holding since 2007 but dropped to second place in Q4 2022.
The foundation continued reducing its stake in the company throughout 2023, and Berkshire now makes up 16.8% of its portfolio.
In Q4 2023, the foundation reduced its stake in Microsoft and Deere & Co.
The foundation also bought 124,333 shares in Veralto Corp, a technology company founded in 2022.
It also sold its stake in around 50 companies, including Morgan Stanley, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Home Depot, Goldman Sachs, and Nvidia.
Despite dumping many big tech companies, technology giant Microsoft remains the foundation’s top holding, comprising 33.98% of the portfolio.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s portfolio
The table below shows the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s share portfolio on 31 December 2023.
| Stock | Portfolio percentage | Change | Value |
| MSFT – Microsoft | 33.98% | Reduce 2.74% | $14,368,815,000 |
| BRK.B – Berkshire Hathaway | 16.80% | Reduce 11.60% | $7,103,365,000 |
| CNI – Canadian National Railway | 16.29% | No change | $6,887,889,000 |
| WM – Waste Management | 14.92% | No change | $6,310,471,000 |
| CAT – Caterpillar | 5.14% | No change | $2,174,243,000 |
| DE – Deere & Co. | 3.36% | Reduce 9.20% | $1,422,489,000 |
| ECL – Ecolab | 2.45% | No change | $1,034,999,000 |
| KOF – Coca-Cola | 1.39% | No change | $588,161,000 |
| WMT – Walmart | 1.13% | No change | $477,705,000 |
| FDX – FedEx | 0.92% | No change | $388,148,000 |
| WCN – Waste Connections | 0.76% | No change | $320,807,000 |
| SDGR – SCHRODINGER | 0.59% | No change | $249,944,000 |
| CCI – Crown Castle International | 0.39% | No change | $163,578,000 |
| CPNG – Coupang | 0.35% | No change | $149,726,000 |
| UPS – United Parcel Service | 0.28% | No change | $118,723,000 |
| BUD – Anheuser-Busch InBev | 0.26% | No change | $110,048,000 |
| MSGS – Madison Square Garden Sports | 0.25% | Buy | $107,717,000 |
| KHC – Kraft Heinz | 0.23% | No change | $96,984,000 |
| DHR – Danaher | 0.20% | No change | $86,290,000 |
| HRL – Hormel Foods | 0.17% | No change | $70,491,000 |
| CVNA – Carvana | 0.07% | No change | $27,529,000 |
| ONON – On Holding | 0.03% | No change | $13,485,000 |
| VLTO – Veralto | 0.02% | Buy | $10,228,000 |
| VRM – Vroom | 0.00% | No change | $1,506,000 |
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