From software partnership to philanthropyOur World

Bill Gates

Explore Microsoft’s beginnings, public leadership, regulatory scrutiny and Gates’s shift toward philanthropy.

Subject guide · scope, chapters & sources ↗

Ten selected public milestones, 1975–May 2025. This is not a full biography or a live wealth ranking. Software products and health programmes are collective work. Announced future giving is labelled a plan, not a completed outcome; private life is outside scope.

1975Albuquerque, United States

A software partnership begins

Bill Gates and Paul Allen develop software for the Altair.

Bill Gates wearing glasses, a dark suit and patterned tie. — Russell Watkins / DFID (UK Department for International Development) · CC BY 2.0

12 August 1981United States

Microsoft software reaches IBM’s PC

MS-DOS accompanies a major personal-computer launch.

24 August 1995United States / international

Windows 95 reaches customers

A widely promoted operating-system release marks Microsoft’s expansion.

18 May 1998United States

Microsoft faces a major antitrust suit

Public scrutiny accompanies its software-market power.

13 January 2000United States

Steve Ballmer succeeds Gates as CEO

Microsoft changes its executive leader.

2000United States / international

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation takes shape

Earlier charitable organisations combine.

27 June 2008United States

Gates leaves Microsoft’s day-to-day work

He shifts more time to foundation work.

2010United States / international

The Giving Pledge launches

Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett encourage public commitments.

13 March 2020United States

Gates leaves Microsoft’s board

The company announces another step away from formal governance.

8 May 2025United States / international

Gates announces a foundation deadline

An accelerated giving plan sets a future endpoint of 2045.