Bill Gates sells all of his Microsoft shares

The Gates Foundation Trust, established by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, has sold 100% of its Microsoft shares in the first quarter of the year.

This surprise move was revealed in the Gates Foundation Trust’s 13F filing for the quarter ended 31 March 2026.

A Form 13F is a quarterly report required by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

It must be filed by all Institutional Investment Managers who manage a portfolio of at least $100 million in certain U.S. equity securities.

The latest filing, which showed that the Gates Foundation Trust sold all its Microsoft shares, raised eyebrows given Gates’ strong ties to Microsoft.

Gates, who dropped out of Harvard University to start Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975, is closely associated with the company.

He served as the company’s CEO from inception until 2000, and as its chairman until 2014. He resigned from the board entirely in 2020.

Microsoft made Gates the world’s youngest self-made billionaire in 1987, and he was regularly listed as the world’s richest person on Forbes’ Billionaires List.

In 2000, after stepping down as Microsoft’s chief executive, he and his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation became one of the world’s biggest charitable organisations, partly with the help of a large donation from Warren Buffett.

In 2025, following the high-profile divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates, the name was changed to the Gates Foundation.

The foundation has committed to spending its entire endowment and to closing its doors by 2045.

Current efforts focus heavily on reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and eradicating infectious diseases like malaria and polio.

Outside of the foundation, Gates focuses on climate change through Breakthrough Energy, a network of investment funds and programs he founded in 2015.

The Gates Foundation Trust

The Gates Foundation has a two-part structure to separate its charitable work from its investment management.

Under this arrangement, the Gates Foundation focused on awarding grants to achieve its charitable aims.

The Gates Foundation Trust manages the endowment and provides the funding needed for the foundation’s initiatives.

Simply put, it is the financial engine that powers the foundation, with a unique structure and investment strategy.

It holds the money donated by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, as well as the annual instalments from fellow billionaire Warren Buffett.

Starting in 2006, Buffett began donating a massive portion of his Berkshire Hathaway shares to the foundation.

The trust invests these assets to preserve and grow the endowment’s value, and then transfers the proceeds to the Foundation.

Microsoft shares formed the core of its assets as both Bill and Melinda Gates have donated a large portion of their Microsoft shares to the foundation.

In Q3 2022, when a large number of Microsoft shares were added to the trust, it became the portfolio’s largest holding, accounting for 27%.

However, since Q4 2023, the Gates Foundation Trust has begun to reduce its stake in Microsoft. Over the next two years, this trend accelerated.

The latest 13F filing from the Gates Foundation Trust for the quarter ended 31 March 2026 showed that it sold its entire Microsoft stake.

This means that the trust, with a portfolio value of $31.7 billion, has no Microsoft shares. It is truly the end of an era for the trust and for Bill Gates.

The table below shows the reduction in the Gates Foundation Trust’s Microsoft stake over the last two years.