In 1986 Bill Gates owned 49 percent of Microsoft at its initial public offering. Today Bill has a fortune of about $77 billion even after his gifts of tens of billions ot the Gates Foundation. Unless Gates stops his regular program of selling stock, soon, however, none of Gates’ fortune will be Micros0ft stock.
In 2018, he will have no direct ownership in the company. Steve Balmer now owns slightly more shares than his former boss. Gates now owns just over 330 million Microsoft shares after the sales this week. Balmer owns just over 333 million.