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Bill Gates
Co-founding Microsoft and helping make personal-computer software a mass-market business.
Altair BASIC · MS-DOS for the IBM PC
- Born
- 28 October 1955
- Birthplace
- Seattle, Washington, USA
More people
Bill Gates
Bill Gates built Microsoft with Paul Allen and led it through the rise of the personal computer. He later shifted much of his attention towards philanthropy, particularly global health and development.
Early life
Early access to computers
At Lakeside School in Seattle, access to a computer terminal gave him opportunities to learn programming unusually young.
A partnership before Microsoft
Shared projects with Paul Allen preceded his studies at Harvard, which he left to concentrate on their software business.
Career
- 1975
Microsoft begins
Gates and Allen developed software for the Altair computer and established their company.
- 1980s–1990s
The PC software business
MS-DOS and Windows became central products as Microsoft expanded through the personal-computer market.
- 2000–2008
A change of role
He stepped down as chief executive, then left daily work at Microsoft to focus more on philanthropy.
- 2010s–2020s
Health and climate work
Foundation activity and climate-related investment became major parts of his public work.
Selected work
Altair BASIC
An early programming-language product helped launch Microsoft.
MS-DOS for the IBM PC
Supplying the operating system positioned Microsoft within a rapidly expanding hardware market.
Windows 95
The widely promoted release brought a more accessible interface to a mass PC audience.
Beyond work
Philanthropic partnership
He and Melinda French Gates established a major foundation focused on health and development. Their marriage ended in 2021.
Books and learning
He publishes reading recommendations and writes about subjects including climate, health and his own early life.
Sources & photo credit
Life and career ↗Institutional or specialist reference ↗Featured contribution ↗Photo: Bogdan Hoyaux / European Union. CC BY 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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