# Bill Gates ## What he actually ran Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft in 1975, ran it as CEO until January 2000, chaired it until 2014, and then made the Gates Foundation his principal office. He is not Melinda. He is not Bill Clinton. A CEO can bundle a browser. A co-chair can pledge $1.2 billion for polio. Neither office writes a WHO emergency or an IRS section. ## Costs on the record [US v. Microsoft](/facts/us-v-microsoft-1998) is a completed 18 May 1998 complaint. [Judge Jackson’s 2000 findings](/facts/us-v-microsoft-2000) are a completed district-court cluster later trimmed on appeal; the [2001 settlement](/facts/us-v-microsoft-2001) is a completed consent. The [2004 Commission Microsoft decision](/facts/eu-microsoft-2004) is a completed abuse-of-dominance text on interoperability. [Browser tying](/facts/eu-browser-choice-2009) is a later EU instrument. [Ireland tax architecture](/facts/ms-ireland-tax) is a completed corporate-residence cluster. [China market practice](/facts/ms-china-censorship) is a completed localisation-and-censorship path. [TRIPS-waiver opposition](/facts/gates-trips-2021) is a completed foundation-and-personal position during COVID. [Epstein meetings](/facts/gates-epstein-meetings) after 2008 are documented association; they are not stored as a completed sex-crime conviction of Gates. [Farmland accumulation](/facts/gates-farmland) is a completed land-holding cluster reported in US filings and press. ## Gains on the record [1975 partnership](/facts/ms-founding-1975), [IBM DOS 1981](/facts/ms-ibm-dos-1981), [1986 IPO](/facts/ms-ipo-1986), and [Windows 95](/facts/ms-windows95-1995) are completed product-and-capital instruments. The [2000 foundation](/facts/gates-foundation-2000), GAVI, [2008 full-time shift](/facts/gates-fulltime-2008), [Giving Pledge 2010](/facts/giving-pledge-2010), [2014 Ebola pledges](/facts/gates-ebola-2014), CEPI, and the [2022 polio $1.2 billion](/facts/gates-polio-2022) are completed health-and-pledge instruments. A pledge is not a coverage rate. GAVI boards and ministries implement. Official carriers include PACER/DOJ, EUR-Lex Commission decisions, SEC 10-Ks, gatesfoundation.org, GAVI, WHO/polio pages, and Reuters. ## Shared files and limits The score does not say that every measles case is a TRIPS paragraph. It does not say that Windows 95 rebates a 2004 Commission fine. It does not convert Epstein meetings into a completed Gates conviction. Related people are Nadella, Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Fauci, Trump, Biden, von der Leyen, Modi, Guterres, Merkel, Macron. A co-chair is powerful enough to own those pledges and those dockets. He is not powerful enough to be the unique author of WHO or of a Commission hearing officer, and the catalog keeps that line visible. Keep 1998 and 2022 on separate dates. US v. Microsoft is several dated instruments: complaint, findings, settlement. The 2004 Commission decision is a different capital’s law. TRIPS-waiver opposition is a 2021 speech-and-lobby file, not a GAVI launch. Epstein meetings after 2008 are association. If those distinctions feel pedantic, they are the alternative to a halo and the alternative to a cartoon. Official pages used here include DOJ, EUR-Lex, SEC, gatesfoundation.org, GAVI, and WHO. ## Dated facts - 2022: The Gates Foundation commits $1.2 billion to polio eradication. https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-polio-2022. Sources: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/health/gates-foundation-pledges-1-2b-to-eradicate-polio-heres-why-its-been-a-struggle-for-decades, https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2022/10/world-health-summit-gates-foundation-commits-over-one-billion-to-end-polio. - 2021: WHO recommends RTS,S malaria vaccine after foundation-backed trials. https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-malaria-rts-2021. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/who-malaria-vaccine-rts-s-2021-10-06/, https://www.who.int/news/item/06-10-2021-who-recommends-groundbreaking-malaria-vaccine-for-children-at-risk. - 2021: Gates and the foundation oppose a broad COVID TRIPS waiver. https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-trips-2021. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/gates-foundation-trips-waiver-covid-vaccines-2021-05-06/, https://www.gatesfoundation.org/. - 2021: Gates and Melinda French Gates announce a divorce; foundation governance later splits. https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-divorce-foundation-2021. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bill-melinda-gates-divorce-2021-05-03/, https://www.gatesfoundation.org/. - 2021: Filings show Gates-linked entities among the largest private US farmland holders. https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-farmland. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bill-gates-farmland-holdings-2021-03-14/, https://www.usda.gov/. - 2021: Gates publishes a climate-technology agenda and expands Breakthrough Energy. https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-climate-2021. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-gates-idUSKBN2A12K4, https://www.breakthroughenergy.org/. - 2020: The foundation backs COVAX as COVID vaccine allocation architecture. https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-covax-2020. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-who-vaccines-idUSKCN2262K4, https://www.gavi.org/covax-facility. - 2020: Gates argues publicly against sharing COVID vaccine IP as the default. https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-covid-ip-2020. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-gates-idUSKCN21U2K4, https://www.gatesfoundation.org/. - 2019: The foundation’s India sanitation programme sits beside Modi’s Swachh Bharat. https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-india-open-defecation-2019. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-sanitation-gates-idUSKBN1WH2K4, https://www.gatesfoundation.org/. - 2017: CEPI is launched with Gates Foundation support. https://factrail.ai/facts/cepi-2017. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-davos-cepi-idUSKBN1532K4, https://cepi.net/. - 2014: The Gates Foundation pledges additional funds against West African Ebola. https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-ebola-2014. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-ebola-gates-idUSKBN0H62K420140911, https://www.gatesfoundation.org/. - 2014: China’s NDRC investigates Microsoft over alleged monopoly practices. https://factrail.ai/facts/ms-china-ndrc-2014. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-china-antitrust-idUSKBN0FY0K420140729, https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/. ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/people/bill-gates