Billionaire Bill Gates Has 66% of His Foundation's $45 Billion Portfolio Invested in 3 Outstanding Stocks

Globe and Mail

8 hours ago

Bill Gates is one of the wealthiest people in the world, with a net worth exceeding $100 billion. What makes that even more impressive is that he's donated more than $60 billion of his wealth to the Gates Foundation, established in 2000.
Much of those donations have come straight from Gates' personal portfolio, which includes a significant stake in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), the company he founded, as well as several important diversifying investments. Outside of Microsoft, Gates appears to be an investor focused on value, taking lessons from his longtime friend and former Gates Foundation donor and trustee, Warren Buffett.
As a result, the Gates Foundation portfolio reflects the combination of Gates and Buffett's investment styles, including maintaining a highly concentrated portfolio of top investments. As such, nearly two-thirds of the foundation's trust fund is held in just three outstanding stocks.
1. Microsoft (31.1%)
Gates first donated Microsoft stock to the foundation upon its founding in 2000, and he's steadily added more shares over time. And while the foundation has often sold some of its shares to fund grants, it's managed to build a substantial stake in the tech company. As of the end of the first quarter, the trust held about 28.5 million shares. Those shares are worth more than $14 billion as of late June.
Microsoft stock has soared to an all-time high in recent weeks on the back of its strength in artificial intelligence (AI). After a $10 billion investment in OpenAI in early 2023, Microsoft's Azure became the leading cloud computing platform for developers looking to take advantage of leading-edge AI models. It's exhibited market-leading growth since then, including 33% growth in its most recent quarter. What's more, Microsoft management says the business remains supply constrained as demand remains high, so it's likely to maintain that growth rate for some time.
Microsoft has also benefited from integrating AI into its enterprise software business. Microsoft 365 commercial revenue has grown at a double-digit pace, bolstered by selling more seats at higher average prices.
Microsoft has developed specialized AI assistants, or Copilots, for applications, including GitHub and Dynamics 365, which help businesses get more out of the software. It also offers a Copilot Studio, which allows businesses to use their own data to create specialized AI assistants.
As a result, Microsoft has seen strong revenue growth and even better profit growth as its margins expand. And with Azure leading the company going forward, that should only continue, going forward.
Investors will have to pay a premium price for the stock right now, with its forward P/E of about 37. But with a massive cash cow of its enterprise software business supporting the rapid expansion and growth of its cloud computing business, it looks like it's worth the premium price.
2. Berkshire Hathaway (18.4%)
As mentioned, Warren Buffett has been a longtime donor to the Gates Foundation. In fact, his total investments since 2006 come to more than $43 billion. And when Buffett donates to non-profits, he donates Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B). Buffett maintains control of the company by converting super-voting Class A shares to Class B shares before donating.
Buffett requires the Gates Foundation to pay grants equal to the amount he donates every year plus an additional 5% of the trust's assets. Nonetheless, Gates has managed to hold onto a significant number of Berkshire Hathaway shares. As of the end of the first quarter, the trust held 17.1 million shares. Those are worth about $8.3 billion.
Berkshire is a holding company that includes several owned and operated businesses. As a group, those businesses have been executing at a high level. That said, the biggest segment, insurance, struggled due to natural disasters like the California wildfires. Overall, that led to some disappointing first-quarter results.
The bulk of Berkshire's value stems from its publicly traded equity portfolio and cash. The total value of its liquid investments sits around $631.8 billion. Over half of that is in Treasury bills or cash as Buffett looks for something he can buy at a good value. That's an increasingly difficult task as Berkshire's size leaves only a handful of companies as viable options for Berkshire to take a stake in.
Shares of Berkshire have fallen since Buffett announced his retirement from the CEO position effective Jan. 1, 2026. It now trades at a price-to-book ratio of 1.6. That price is still historically expensive for Berkshire, though, and Buffett has neglected to buy back shares at that valuation over the last several quarters. That said, Berkshire may deserve to trade for a higher multiple, given that it's currently unleveraged (not utilizing the insurance float for investments) and sitting on a ton of cash.
3. Waste Management (16.2%)
Most of the other stocks held by the Gates Foundation trust reflect the value-investing ideas that made Warren Buffett so successful. Waste Management (NYSE: WM) may be the most emblematic of that.
Waste Management has been a staple of the portfolio since 2002. The long-term buy-and-hold position has steadily increased in value over the years with limited share sales. The trust held 32.2 million shares at the end of the first quarter. Those are worth about $7.3 billion as of this writing.
What makes Waste Management appealing is its tremendous competitive moat. It holds an unmatched portfolio of landfills, which is impossible to match due to the high bar required to receive a permit for new landfills. As such, many smaller waste haulers pay Waste Management to use its landfills. Waste Management also benefits from scale, which allows it to create denser pickup routes and get more out of its operations. As a result, the company sports strong profit margins.
With its excess cash, the company has been able to grow through acquisition. The most recent of which is Stericycle, which is now called WM Healthcare Solutions. At its most recent investor day, management predicted $50 million in cross-selling opportunities with Stericycle in addition to its $250 million in cost synergies.
Management also sees revenue growth accelerating to about 9% per year with expanding earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margins through 2027. That will support strong free cash flow growth, which management can use for additional tuck-in acquisitions, its growing dividend, or share repurchases. With an enterprise value of about 15 times the expected EBITDA over the next 12 months, the shares look fairly priced and could be a good opportunity for a dividend growth investor looking for companies with strong free cash flow growth potential.
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Adam Levy has positions in Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends Waste Management and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.