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Welcome to the Bill Gates Net Worth Page
William H. Gates III, Co-founder, Chairman, and ex-CEO of Microsoft has been rated by Forbes Magazine as the richest person in the world for the 13th consecutive year (as of October 2006).
Bill's net worth remains at such astounding levels that we decided to find a way to present it that made sense to the average reader.
Please note that we are only counting Bill's holdings of Microsoft stock, not his other vast holdings.
Based on Microsoft's current stock price,Bill is worth: $24.79 Billion.Read on for the details.
If you like this page, please be sure to check out our many awards and media appearances! Thank you!
Gates Quote of the Day
It's like walking through the Vatican with the Pope. -- Tom Brokaw after walking the floor at Comdex with Bill
Table of Contents
How much is Bill worth right now?
MSFT: Microsoft Stock
Wealth Accumulation
Microsoft products
Born in the U.S.A.
How Much Does That Mean For ME?
The Sporting Life
What if Bill were a Country?
And What if Bill Were a Public Company?
Take It to the Bank
Charity Starts in Redmond, Washington
Laying Dollar Bills End to End
Stacking Bills
Wall-to-Wall Carpeting
How do we do it? Volume!
Time is Money; Money is Time
How Far Can You Make Your Money Go?
Data Storage
A Picture is Worth 1000 Words
Buying Power
Spending it all
What Does The Money Really Mean?
Other Fun Bill Gates Links You May Like
Stuff We're Looking For
A Non-Bill-Related Quote for the Day
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How much is Bill worth right now?
We obviously do not have a full reckoning of everything Bill owns. But, according to the Yahoo! Insider Trades site, Bill has 877,499,336 shares of MSFT. This figure reflects all trades made through 3-Aug-07 , which is the most recent trade. (Thanks to Jeff Call for the pointer!)
As of 4:00pm ET on 8/17/2007, Microsoft was selling for $28.25.
Some simple multiplication tells us that he owns $24,789,356,242.00 worth of Microsoft stock. (That's $24.79 Billion.)
MSFT: Microsoft Stock
Microsoft has a total of 10,700,000,000 shares outstanding, worth a total of $302,275,000,000, which is Microsoft's market capitalization. (That's $302.28 Billion.)
Bill's 877,499,336 shares represents 8.20% of Microsoft.
On March 13, 1986, the day Microsoft went public, according to Microsoft's Public Relations Department, Bill owned 11,142,000 shares of MSFT stock. At MSFT's IPO price of $21 per share Bill's initial fortune was worth $233,982,000 or $233.98 Million. Adjusted for splits, if Bill had not sold any stock since then, he would have 3,208,896,000 shares. Those shares would be worth $90,651,312,000.00 or $90.65 Billion today. Thanks to Michael Noer and Julie Sullivan at Wired Magazine for their help here.
Microsoft stock's all-time high price (adjusted for splits) is $119.7511. That means that Bill's all-time high net worth (if he hadn't sold any shares) is: $105,081,510,735.26 or $105.08 Billion.
If Bill had never sold any of his MSFT stock, at his maximum price, Bill's share would be worth: $384,268,825,785.60 or $384.27 Billion.
Microsoft went public on March 13, 1986. Its IPO price was $21/share, which, after adjustments for splits is equivalent to 7.29¢.
Microsoft stock has split a total of 9 times, increasing the number of shares, and decreasing each share's value by a factor of 288. If MSFT stock had never split, the share price today would be $8136.00. (Thanks to Michael Chauvin for the suggestion)
Wealth Accumulation
Microsoft's stock was up by $0.44 today. This means that Bill made another $386,099,707.84 today. (That's $386.1 Million.)
Since midnight (Eastern Time), 343 minutes have passed. Since that time, Bill has made money at the rate of $1,125,655.12 per minute. That's $1.13 Million per minute!
The day Microsoft went public, Bill's fortune was worth $233,982,000 or $233.98 Million.
In the time since March 13, 1986, Bill's Net Worth has increased by $24,555,374,242.00 (that's $24.56 Billion). Let's look at how much Bill has made for each of various periods of time...
Unit of time
Quantity sinceMarch 13, 1986
Dollars made duringeach of these periods
Seconds
676,341,004(676.34 Million)
$36.30
4 Seconds
169,085,251.00(169.09 Million)
$145.22
Minutes
11,272,350.06(11.27 Million)
$2,178.37
Hours
187,872.50(187.9 Thousand)
$130,702.33
Days
7,828.02(7.8 Thousand)
$3,136,855.99($3.14 Million)
Weeks
1,118.28
$21,957,991.97($21.96 Million)
Months
260.93
$94,105,679($94.11 Million)
Years
21.44
$1,144,952,438.95($1.14 Billion)
Thanks to Robert Tweardy and Frank Isaacs for their information!
Note: We give 4 seconds its own entry because that is the period of time that Brad Templeton of the Bill Gates Wealth Page says it takes to pick up found money from the ground. Brad says that this amount is not worth Bill stooping to pick up. Draw your own conclusions.
Imagine an endless line of $1 bills laid end to end. If you began traveling along this line picking up dollar bills March 13, 1986 (the day Microsoft went public), and you wished to accumulate wealth at the same rate Bill has since that date, you would need to travel that line of bills picking them up at 12.66 MPH or 20.38 KPH.
Since March 13, 1986, Bill has been making money at a compounded interest rate of: 24.29% per year. Compare that to the historic growth rate of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is about 11%.
When will Bill become a TRILLIONAIRE? (By the US definition: $1,000,000,000,000.) If he can maintain the current 24.29% annual rate of growth, he will achieve trillionaire-hood in 17.00 Years, on Aug 17, 2024. Thanks to Lloyd Watts for the idea.
The US National Debt as of 8/18/2007 was $8,969,941,167,614.98 . (That's $8.97 Trillion.) At this current rate of growth, Bill will be able to pay off the ENTIRE U.S. National Debt on Sep 19, 2034. Thanks to Chad Aebischer (among others) for this suggestion.
And, just for laughs, what about a Quadrillionaire? At the same continuous growth rate, he will achieve Quadrillionaire-hood in 48.76 Years, on Apr 16, 1920. Thanks to Matt Green and Chris Guidi for the formulas.
Microsoft ProductsMicrosoft claims to have sold approximately 120 Million copies of Windows 95. If every one of those copies crashes or otherwise requires a reboot an average of once per day, and Bill were charged $1 per crash or reboot, his money would last 206.57 days or 0.56 years. Thanks to Kevin LaCour for the suggestion.
Born in the U.S.A.According to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, in Fiscal Year 2006, the United States Government printed paper currency worth a total of $156.82 Billion. Bill's net worth is 15.80% of that value. Double thanks to Frank Isaacs for the suggestion and new URL.
In 2004, George W. Bush won the US Presidental Election with a total of 62,028,285 votes. The electoral college aside, if Bill wanted to be President, he could have bought 62,028,286 votes (one more than Pres. Bush got), and paid each voter $399.64. Thanks to David Johansen (no, not that David Johansen!) for the suggestion.
NASA (the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has a 2007 budget totaling $16,102,000,000 or $16.1 Billion. This means that Bill could finance the United States' space effort (all by himself) for 1.53 years. Thanks to Jonathan M. Franz for the suggestion and statistic.
The US National Debt as of 8/18/2007 was $8,969,941,167,614.98 (That's $8.97 Trillion.) Bill's net worth is only 0.276% of that. Editorial comment: Keep that debt figure in mind when they talk about balancing the US budget. Balancing it is only the first step; then we still have to pay off the debt.
In October of 1997, the US Justice Department tried to assess a fine of $1 million per day against Microsoft Corporation for alleged violations of an antitrust agreement. If Mr. Gates were called upon to pay this fine out of his own pocket (which is NOT the case), he could pay it every day for 24,789.3 days, or 67.86 years. (Thanks to Paul Brackett and others for their suggestions.)
Let's take a look at the 3 branches of the US Government, and their 2007 salaries.
Office
Quantity
Salary
Total Salary
President of the United States
1
$400,000
$400,000
Vice President of the United States
1
$208,100
$208,100
Chief Justice of the United States (Supreme Court)
1
$208,100
$208,100
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court
8
$199,200
$1,593,600
United States Senators
100
$162100
$16,210,000
United States Representatives
435
$162100
$70,513,500
Total Salary for all these people
546
$89,133,300
Number of Times Bill could buy these people's salaries
329.68
Thanks to Ken Phillips for the suggestion and the stats.
Not to get too morbid, but many people have asked about Bill's U.S. tax liabilities. Let's look at what happens if Bill dies...
According to the Internet Death Clock, Bill will die on Thursday, August 9, 2029 at age 73. (That is 21.99 years from now.) If Bill continues to make money at the same rate of 24.29% per year, he will have $2,960,039,232,865.54 or $2.96 Trillion! Thanks to Christopher Guidi for the suggestion and the formulas!
Uncle Sam gets (in the form of Federal Estate Transfer Taxes) $11,764,800 plus 55% of everything in excess of $21,040,000 MINUS $1,000,000 (his unified estate tax credit). Based on his CURRENT net worth, that would come to $13,633,338,733.10 ($13.63 Billion)... UNLESS...
He leaves it all outright to his wife, Melinda, in which case Uncle Sam gets ZERO (until she dies, when they get another shot at it) OR
He leaves it all outright to charity, in which case Uncle Sam gets absolutely nothing.
It should be noted that Bill can gift $12,000 annually to as many individuals as he has money without incurring any estate transfer taxation. (OK, $24,000 per individual if Melinda elects to split gifts.) NOTE: We are NOT taking names at this web site.
One final note: When Bill dies, his estate will not pay a penny in income tax on the appreciation of his shares. In fact, whoever gets the appreciated shares could immediately sell those shares (assuming the price does not change) and not pay a penny of income tax. It's called a step up in basis and it's one of the last great estate planning tools remaining. (Thanks to Ben Utley, CFP for his suggestion and tax advice, and Chris Gorab for updating the figures.)
According to Yahoo Finance, as of 8/17/2007, the price of gold is $657.80 per troy ounce. There are 147 million troy ounces of gold in Fort Knox. (Fort Knox is the United States primary repository for its gold reserves.) All the gold in Fort Knox is, therefore, worth $96,696,600,000 or $96.7 Billion
Bill is worth 25.63% the value of all the gold in Fort Knox.
And how much is Bill worth per ounce? Well, we don't know how much he actually weighs, but we'll assume 180 lbs. (If you know better, let us know.) Gold is weighed in Troy Ounces; there are 14.583 Troy ounces in a pound. So, Bill's estimated 180 pounds is 2624.94 Troy ounces.
That means that Bill is worth $9,443,780.14 or $9.44 Million per ounce. This also means that Bill's body is worth 14,356.61 times more than gold! Thanks to Emily Hull and Matt Cruikshank for the suggestion.
How Much Does That Mean For ME?
According to the US Census Bureau, the population of the World on 08/18/07 was: 6,612,486,387 (That's 6.61 Billion). This means that Bill could give $3.74 to every person on the entire planet! And he'd still have $58,657,154 left over for incidentals.
The US Census Bureau also says the population of the US on 08/18/07 was: 302,634,174 (That's 302.63 Million). This means that Bill could give $81.91 to every person in the United States.
The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California seats 100,092 people. If it were full, Bill could give $247,665.7 to each person.
According to the Microsoft Fast Facts web page, on June 30, 2006, Microsoft had 71,172 employees. Though many of them are already millionaires, Bill could afford to give each of them $348,302.08. (Thanks to Frank Isaacs for the suggestion.)
The Sporting Life
If Bill wanted to spend all his time playing Pac-Man, assuming each 25¢ game lasts 10 minutes (he isn't very good at it), Bill could play for 1,885,265.51 Years. Thanks to David Holton for the suggestion.
It cost Mike Tyson $3 million (he forfeited 10% of the fight purse) when he bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear in a boxing match. Assuming that piece of ear weighed about 1/2 an ounce, Bill could afford to eat 258.22 pounds of Evander Holyfield if he were so inclined. (Thanks to George J Rickle II for the (somewhat sick) suggestion.)
According to Forbes Magazine the total value of all 121 Major League teams in all four major US Sports (in 2004) was $41.29 Billion. That's only 166.5% of Bill's fortune.
Let's look at the highest paid athlete in the 4 major US sports, and see how long they have to play to make Bill kinds of money.
Player, Team, Sport
Salary
Games per Season
Salary per Game
Seasons to Play to Make Bill Money
Alex Rodiguez, Texas Rangers, baseball
$25 million ($252 million over 10 years)
162
$154,320.98
991.57
Shaquille O'Neal, Los Angeles Lakers, basketball
$31.9 million
82
$389,024.39
777.09
Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts, football
$42 million
16
$2,625,000.00
590.22
Jaromir Jagr, Washington Capitols, Hockey
$11 million
82
$134,146.34
2,253.57
Thanks to Rob Prouty for the suggestion.
What if Bill were a Country?
Let's compare Bill's Net Worth with the Gross Domestic Products of the nations of the world.
GDP Data is current through 2005, and comes courtesy of The World Bank courtesy of Wikipedia
Ranking
Country
2005 Gross Domestic Product
1
United States
$12,455,068,000,000($12.46 Trillion)
2
Japan
$4,505,912,000,000($4.51 Trillion)
3
Germany
$2,781,900,000,000($2.78 Trillion)
73
Bulgaria
$26,648,000,000($26.65 Billion)
74
Syrian Arab Republic
$26,320,000,000($26.32 Billion)
75
Lithuania
$25,495,000,000($25.5 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
76
Oman
$24,284,000,000($24.28 Billion)
77
Sri Lanka
$23,479,000,000($23.48 Billion)
78
Lebanon
$22,210,000,000($22.21 Billion)
If we took the 2005 GDP of the United States, $12.46 Trillion, and used it to create a population with as much money as Bill has, we could create 502 of them.
The total GDP for the entire world (in 2005) was $44.38 Trillion,. We could create 1790 Bills. Thanks to Luis Klemas for this suggestion, too.
And What if Bill Were a Public Company?
While Bill is not a company, and Fortune Magazine's 2006 Fortune 500 rates companies on their total annual revenue, not Net Worth, it still makes for an interesting comparison...
Ranking
Company
2006 Gross Revenue
1
Exxon Mobil
$339,938,000,000($339.94 Billion)
2
Wal-Mart Stores
$315,654,000,000($315.65 Billion)
3
General Motors
$192,604,000,000($192.6 Billion)
48
Microsoft
$39,788,000,000($39.79 Billion)
81
TIAA-CREF
$25,916,800,000($25.92 Billion)
82
International Paper
$25,797,000,000($25.8 Billion)
83
Cisco Systems
$24,801,000,000($24.8 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
84
HCA
$24,455,000,000($24.46 Billion)
85
St. Paul Travelers Cos.
$24,365,000,000($24.37 Billion)
86
News Corp.
$23,859,000,000($23.86 Billion)
A more reasonable ranking of Bill among companies is one that ranks Bill's worth against the Market Capitalizations of the world's largest companies. (Market Capitalization is the product of the number of outstanding shares of a company's stock multiplied by its share price.)
These rankings come from net-comber.com, and are as of June 19, 2001, and are NOT updated.
Thanks to Brian McClendon for the suggestion and pointer.
Ranking
Company
June 27, 2001 MarketCapitalization
1
GENERAL ELECTRIC CO.
$485,429,200,000($485.43 Billion)
2
MICROSOFT CORP
$362,323,100,000($362.32 Billion)
3
EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION
$304,865,600,000($304.87 Billion)
4
PFIZER INC
$277,765,400,000($277.77 Billion)
5
CITIGROUP INC
$255,199,800,000($255.2 Billion)
101
EMERSON ELECTRIC CO
$27,133,870,000($27.13 Billion)
102
THE GAP INC
$27,099,820,000($27.1 Billion)
103
FIRST DATA CORP
$25,895,750,000($25.9 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
104
SAFEWAY INC
$24,648,710,000($24.65 Billion)
105
VERITAS SOFTWARE CORP
$24,520,410,000($24.52 Billion)
106
NASDAQ-100 INDEX TRCKNG STCK
$24,270,240,000($24.27 Billion)
Take It to the Bank
Another more appropriate comparison is comparing Bill's assets (net worth) to the assets of the largest Commercial Banks in the United States. They are from onlinebankingreports.com, as of December 31, 2000. More recent mergers are NOT accounted for.
Ranking
Bank
Assets as of Dec 31, 2000
1
Citicorp
$902,200,000,000($902.2 Billion)
2
Chase
$715,300,000,000($715.3 Billion)
3
Bank of America
$642,200,000,000($642.2 Billion)
36
Popular Inc
$28,100,000,000($28.1 Billion)
37
Harris Bank
$28,000,000,000($28 Billion)
38
Marshall & Ilsley
$26,100,000,000($26.1 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
39
Old Kent Financial
$23,900,000,000($23.9 Billion)
40
First Security
$23,300,000,000($23.3 Billion)
41
Astoria Financial Corp
$22,500,000,000($22.5 Billion)
Charity Starts in Redmond, Washington
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, there are 760,000 homeless people in America. Bill could give each of them $32,617.57. Thanks to Ricky Daulton for the suggestion.
According to the people at Save the Children it costs $240 to sponsor one child for a year. This means that Bill could save 103,288,984 (103.29 Million) of the children. Of course, there are only 58.5 million people (adults included) in all of Ethiopia.
According to the people at Make-A-Wish, it costs about $6600 to grant a wish to an ill child. Therefore, Bill could grant the wishes of 3,755,963 or 3.76 Million children. Thanks to Ricky Daulton for the suggestion.
It costs roughly $30,000 to purchase the supplies to build a 3 bedroom home for Habitat for Humanity. (Labor is donated.) Bill could donate supplies for 826,311 homes. Since these are 3 bedroom homes, let's assume 4 1/2 occupants per house; Bill could house 3,718,403 people. (Thanks to Thomas Talbert for the suggestion.)
If we created a state that consisted solely of these homes, let's call it Gatesylvania, let's see how the population of Gatesylvania would rank among the other states of the U.S.:
Ranking
U.S. State
2000 Population
1
California
33,871,648(33.87 Million)
2
Texas
20,851,820(20.85 Million)
3
New York
18,976,457(18.98 Million)
24
Colorado
4,301,261(4.3 Million)
25
Kentucky
4,041,769(4.04 Million)
26
South Carolina
4,012,012(4.01 Million)
Gatesylvania
3,718,403(3.72 Million)
27
Oklahoma
3,450,654(3.45 Million)
28
Oregon
3,421,399(3.42 Million)
29
Connecticut
3,405,565(3.41 Million)
Gatesylvania would be larger than the combined total populations of Wyoming, District of Columbia, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Laying Dollar Bills End to End
NOTE: The next sections discuss the conversion of Bill's wealth to $1 bills. Of course, according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, since 1986, when Microsoft was founded (and through 2005), 75,836,800,000 $1 bills have been printed. Bill's $24,789,356,242.00 comprise 32.68% of that total. (Thanks to Larry Moy for the suggestion.)
If you had 24,789,356,242 one dollar bills, and laid them end to end, you would have a line of bills that runs 2,402,248.1 miles.
Rand McNally says that it's 2912 miles from New York City to Seattle. Laying bills end to end, you could make that round trip 412.4 times.
The average distance to the moon is 238,855 miles. You could make that round trip 5.0 times.
If you spent 24 hours a day laying these bills end to end, and were able to sustain a rate of 2 bills per second, it would take you 393.03 years to complete the job.
Stacking Bills
If you took 24,789,356,242 one dollar bills, and could actually balance them in a stack, that stack would be 8,866,007.2 feet or 1,679 miles high.
By comparison, it's 200 miles from New York to Baltimore. If you took that stack and lay it down on the ground, it could make that trip between New York and Baltimore 8.3 times.
It's 2565 miles from New York to San Francisco. The stack of bills would cover 65.46% of the trip.
What if Bill decided to keep all his cash under his mattress? Let us assume that Bill and Melinda sleep on a King Size mattress. According to the folks at Slumberland Furniture, an American King Sized bed is 78 by 80 inches, or 6240 square inches, or 43 1/3 square feet in area. It takes 397.57 bills to cover a king-sized mattress. Using all of Bill's money (as $1 bills), you could cover the king-sized mattress with bills 62,352,038.91 bills deep. That means Bill would have a jump of 267,605.31 inches or 4.22 miles to get from the bed to the floor each morning, not counting the thickness of the bed itself. Thanks to Jeffery Lay for the suggestion.
The stack of 24,789,356,242 one dollar bills would weigh 54,602,106.2 pounds or 25,295.2 tons.
By comparison, a Boeing 747-400 weighs 800,000 pounds, or 400 tons. The money weighs 63.23 times more.
Wall-to-Wall Carpeting
If you took all these bills, and placed them all flat on the ground so they didn't overlap, they would cover an area of 62,022.39 acres or 96.91 square miles.
You could cover the entire surface area of Vatican City with dollar bills 570.44 times. That would be to a depth of 2.44 inches.
You could cover the entire surface area of Manhattan, NY with dollar bills 4.36 times, and with five dollar bills 0.87 times
How do we do it? Volume!
There are 24,605.90 dollar bills in a cubic foot. Bill's $24,789,356,242.00 would take up some 1,007,455.78 cubic feet.
A Boeing 747-400 holds 27,467 cubic feet of cargo. This means that Bill's money in $1 bills would fill 36.67 Boeing 747-400 cargo compartments! (Thanks to Kevin Day for his suggestion and statistics!)
However, 27,467 cubic feet of $1 bills or 675,850,255 (675.85 million) bills weighs 1,379,286 pounds or 689.64 tons. This is quite a bit more than the 124 ton rated carrying capacity of a Boeing 747-400.
So, if Bill actually wanted to fly all his money someplace (say to Manhattan, to carpet it), he'd need 203.9 Boeing 747-400s. (Thanks to Guy Sherr for his suggestion and statistics!)
However, New York's Empire State Building has a listed volume of 37 million cubic feet. Bill's cash would only fill 2.72% of that space!(Thanks to Frank Isaacs for the statistic.)
Time is Money; Money is Time
Another way to get a feel for the magnitude of these numbers is to apply them to objects besides money. Let's look at common units of time, expressed in Bill-sized quantities:
Units
One Million (1,000,000)
One Billion (1,000,000,000)
Bill's Net Worth(24,789,356,242.00)
Change in Bill's Net Worth Today(386,099,707.84)
Nanoseconds (Billionths of a second)
0.001 seconds
1 second
24.78 Seconds
0.38 Seconds
Microseconds (Millionths of a second)
1 second
16.66 Minutes
6.88 Hours
6.43 Minutes
Milliseconds (Thousandths of a second)
16.66 minutes
11.57 Days
9.42 Months
4.46 Days
Seconds
11.57 Days
31.68 Years
785.52 Years
12.23 Years
Minutes
1.90 Years
1901.28 Years
47,131.63 Years
734.08 Years
Hours
114.08 Years
114,077.12 Years
2,827,898.27 Years
44,045.14 Years
Days
2,737.86 Years
2,737,850.75 Years
67,869,558.49 Years
1,057,083.38 Years
What if Bill felt especially talkative? How long could he spend speaking long distance?
Price per minute
Duration of call
1¢
4,713,163.78 Years
5¢
942,632.75 Years
10¢
471,316.37 Years
15¢
314,210.91 Years
25¢
188,526.55 Years
$1.00
47,131.63 Years
$5.00
9,426.32 Years
$100
471.31 Years
$1 million
17.21 DaysThanks to Radoslav Ratkovsky for his suggestion!
What if you earned the US Minimum Wage? How long would it take you to earn Bill's fortune? Since September 1, 1997, the US Minimum Wage has been $5.15 per hour. If you worked continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and saved every bit of your earnings (disregarding taxes), you would need to work for 549,106.46 Years to earn Bill's money. If you took the wimpy approach, and only worked 40 hours a week, then it would take 2,306,247.13 Years. Thanks to Pteryx for his suggestion.
Note that, according to the Hunterian Museum Man's oldest known hominid ancestor, Australopithecus, lived between 3.5 and 4 million years ago. Thanks to Kenneth Badertscher for the pointer.
How much time could Bill have bought on the 2004 Super Bowl? CBS charged a record (at the time) $2.2 million for a 30 second commercial, or $4.4 million per minute. That means that Bill could purchase 3.91 Days of the game.
What about Internet access? Let's assume that it costs $20 per month, or $240 per year for typical access to an ISP. Bill could buy himself Internet access for 103,288,984.34 or 103.29 Million years. Thanks to Matt Decker-Maurer for the suggestion.
How Far Can You Make Your Money Go?
If time isn't adequate, let's look at Bill-sized quantities applied to distances, both metric and English.
Units
One Million (1,000,000)
One Billion (1,000,000,000)
Bill's Net Worth(24,789,356,242.00)
Change in Bill's Net Worth Today(386,099,707.84)
Microns (Millionths of a Meter)
1 meter
1 kilometer
24.78 kilometers
386.09 meters
Millimeters
1 kilometer
1,000 kilometers
24,789.35 kilometers
386.09 kilometers
Meters
1000 kilometers
1,000,000 kilometers
24,789,356.24 kilometers
386,099.70 kilometers
Inches
15.78 miles
15,782.82 miles
391,246.15 miles
6,093.74 miles
Feet
1,893.93 miles
1,893,939.39 miles
4,694,953.83 miles
73,124.94 miles
Miles
1,000,000.00 miles
10.75 A.U.s
266.55 A.U.s
4.15 A.U.s
Note: An A.U. or Astronomical Unit is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun. It is equivalent to 93,000,000 miles or 155,000,000 kilometers.
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Data Storage
Obviously, Bill has made his money in computer technology. Let's look at Bill-sized quantities in terms of disk (or memory) storage.
Units
One Million (1,000,000)
One Billion (1,000,000,000)
Bill's Net Worth(24,789,356,242.00)
Change in Bill's Net Worth Today(386,099,707.84)
Bits
122.07 Kilobytes
119.20 Megabytes
2.88 Gigabytes
46.02 Megabytes
Bytes
976.56 Kilobytes
953.67 Megabytes
23.08 Gigabytes
368.21 Megabytes
Kilobytes
953.67 Megabytes
931.32 Gigabytes
22.54 Terabytes
359.58 Gigabytes
(Thanks to Greg Williams for the sugestion.)
A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words
In the world of animation, it takes 24 drawings to create one second of animation. A roll of 24 exposure 35mm film from York Photo Labs costs $2.50, plus $3.50 for processing, and $1 for shipping or $7 per roll. Assuming he wanted to create an animated film using Kodak film, in this way, Bill's animated film could last 112.21 Years. Thanks to Agharahimi for the suggestion.
We're told that a picture is worth 1000 words.
Bill could afford to purchase and process 3,541,336,606.00 rolls of film. At 24 photos per roll, that's 84,992,078,544.00 pictures. That translates to 84,992,078,544,000.00 or 84.99 Trillion words.
My college English professor told me that you can put an average of about 500 words on a typical piece of typing paper. So, if you are still with us, Bill's fortune is worth 169,984,157,088.00 or 169.98 Billion sheets of paper.
A typical type of paper stacks 250 sheets to the inch. Bill's college essay would stack 679,936,628.35 inches high or 10,731.32 miles high.
It would take 448.87 Years to print it out of a Laser Printer doing 5 pages per minute. (Better get it right the first time!) Thanks to Matt Steinhoff for his suggestion.
Buying Power
So with all this money, what can Bill buy? Let's look around...
Item to purchase
Cost
Number Bill can afford
Copy of Microsoft Windows XP Professional
$299.95
82,644,961(82.64 Million)
NASA's Space Shuttle
$1.7 Billion
14.58
Pfizer's Viagra tablets
$10
2,478,935,624(At one per day, that'll last him 6,786,955.84 years.)
The "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy
$298 Million
83
Boeing 777-300ER Commercial Airplane
$253 million
97.98
Shaquile O'Neal's 2004 NBA earnings (not counting endorsements or films)
$31.9 million
777.09
Bugatti Veyron 16.4
$1,192,057
20,795(20.8 Thousand)
2005 Chevrolet Aveo
$8935
2,774,410(2.77 Million)
Four Years' tuition, room & board at Harvard University (at 2005-2006 rate: $41,675/year)
$166,700
148,706.39(148.7 Thousand)
Spending it all
Let's say you wanted to spend every dime of Bill's money, and you set a time limit of 32 years to do it. Assuming you worked 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, you would have to spend it at the following rates:
Per year
$774,667,382.56
$774.67 Million
Per month
$64,555,615.21
$64.56 Million
Per week
$14,846,059.45
$14.85 Million
Per day
$2,120,923.70
$2.12 Million
Per hour
$88,371.82
$88.4 Thousand
Per minute
$1,472.86
$1.5 Thousand
Per second
$24.54
$24
Thanks to Glen Aidukas for the suggestion!
What Does The Money Really Mean?So Bill has all this money. You have money too. It's all a matter of magnitude.
Let's compare Bill's net worth to yours graphically:
Bill's Net Worth$24,789,356,242
Your Net WorthLess than $61,973,390
Thanks to Sheldon Sydia for his suggestion.
When you spend or earn money, the amount of the transaction is a percentage of your net worth; let's see how much Bill has to spend (or earn) to match your percentage. For the sake of argument, let's say you have a net worth of $70000.
Transaction
Change to your net worth
Proportional change to Bill's net worth (assuming yours is $70000)
Find a penny on the sidewalk
+ 1¢
+ $3,541.33
Dig 22¢ from the cushions of your couch
+ 22¢
+ $77,909.40($77.9 Thousand)
Go see a current movie, with a date (popcorn is extra)
- $16
- $5,666,138.56($5.67 Million)
Have a moderate dinner for 2
- $60
- $21,248,019.63($21.25 Million)
Win $100 in the lottery
+ $100
+ $35,413,366.06($35.41 Million)
Make a lease payment on your car
- $299
- $105,885,964.51($105.89 Million)
Pay the mortgage
- $2000
- $708,267,321.20($708.27 Million)
Buy an average car
- $18000
- $6,374,405,890.80($6.37 Billion)
Buy a house
- $250000
- $88,533,415,150.00($88.53 Billion)
Hit the lottery for $10 million
+ $10,000,000
+$3,541,336,606,000.00($3.54 Trillion)Thanks to Larry Russo for the suggestion.
Other Fun Bill Gates Links You May Like
Brad Templeton's Bill Gates Wealth Page
Make Me Richer Than Bill Gates This one is REALLY funny.
Microsoft Fine-O-Matic
Stuff We're Looking For...
We are always looking for some facts that we will include in the content of this page. If the information is verifiable, please email pointers to us. Thank you! If we like it, we'll credit you!
Publications in which this page is written up.
Some of the other really cool Web Badges.
Other ideas for how we might express Bill's Net Worth (but NOT more things he could buy!).
Please don't ask us for any of his money. WE DON'T HAVE ANY! We will ignore any inquiries about sharing his money.
A Non-Bill-Related Quote for Today
The author of this page, Evan Marcus, has been collecting quotes, funny, clever, wise, cynical, or whatever from various sources since about 1985. Opinions expressed in the list may or may not agree with our own actual opinions, assuming we have any. You will get a different quote each time you reload this page.
The list presently contains 5110 entries.
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Welcome to the Bill Gates Net Worth Page
William H. Gates III, Co-founder, Chairman, and ex-CEO of Microsoft has been rated by Forbes Magazine as the richest person in the world for the 13th consecutive year (as of October 2006).
Bill's net worth remains at such astounding levels that we decided to find a way to present it that made sense to the average reader.
Please note that we are only counting Bill's holdings of Microsoft stock, not his other vast holdings.
Based on Microsoft's current stock price,Bill is worth: $24.79 Billion.Read on for the details.
If you like this page, please be sure to check out our many awards and media appearances! Thank you!
Gates Quote of the Day
It's like walking through the Vatican with the Pope. -- Tom Brokaw after walking the floor at Comdex with Bill
Table of Contents
How much is Bill worth right now?
MSFT: Microsoft Stock
Wealth Accumulation
Microsoft products
Born in the U.S.A.
How Much Does That Mean For ME?
The Sporting Life
What if Bill were a Country?
And What if Bill Were a Public Company?
Take It to the Bank
Charity Starts in Redmond, Washington
Laying Dollar Bills End to End
Stacking Bills
Wall-to-Wall Carpeting
How do we do it? Volume!
Time is Money; Money is Time
How Far Can You Make Your Money Go?
Data Storage
A Picture is Worth 1000 Words
Buying Power
Spending it all
What Does The Money Really Mean?
Other Fun Bill Gates Links You May Like
Stuff We're Looking For
A Non-Bill-Related Quote for the Day
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How much is Bill worth right now?
We obviously do not have a full reckoning of everything Bill owns. But, according to the Yahoo! Insider Trades site, Bill has 877,499,336 shares of MSFT. This figure reflects all trades made through 3-Aug-07 , which is the most recent trade. (Thanks to Jeff Call for the pointer!)
As of 4:00pm ET on 8/17/2007, Microsoft was selling for $28.25.
Some simple multiplication tells us that he owns $24,789,356,242.00 worth of Microsoft stock. (That's $24.79 Billion.)
MSFT: Microsoft Stock
Microsoft has a total of 10,700,000,000 shares outstanding, worth a total of $302,275,000,000, which is Microsoft's market capitalization. (That's $302.28 Billion.)
Bill's 877,499,336 shares represents 8.20% of Microsoft.
On March 13, 1986, the day Microsoft went public, according to Microsoft's Public Relations Department, Bill owned 11,142,000 shares of MSFT stock. At MSFT's IPO price of $21 per share Bill's initial fortune was worth $233,982,000 or $233.98 Million. Adjusted for splits, if Bill had not sold any stock since then, he would have 3,208,896,000 shares. Those shares would be worth $90,651,312,000.00 or $90.65 Billion today. Thanks to Michael Noer and Julie Sullivan at Wired Magazine for their help here.
Microsoft stock's all-time high price (adjusted for splits) is $119.7511. That means that Bill's all-time high net worth (if he hadn't sold any shares) is: $105,081,510,735.26 or $105.08 Billion.
If Bill had never sold any of his MSFT stock, at his maximum price, Bill's share would be worth: $384,268,825,785.60 or $384.27 Billion.
Microsoft went public on March 13, 1986. Its IPO price was $21/share, which, after adjustments for splits is equivalent to 7.29¢.
Microsoft stock has split a total of 9 times, increasing the number of shares, and decreasing each share's value by a factor of 288. If MSFT stock had never split, the share price today would be $8136.00. (Thanks to Michael Chauvin for the suggestion)
Wealth Accumulation
Microsoft's stock was up by $0.44 today. This means that Bill made another $386,099,707.84 today. (That's $386.1 Million.)
Since midnight (Eastern Time), 343 minutes have passed. Since that time, Bill has made money at the rate of $1,125,655.12 per minute. That's $1.13 Million per minute!
The day Microsoft went public, Bill's fortune was worth $233,982,000 or $233.98 Million.
In the time since March 13, 1986, Bill's Net Worth has increased by $24,555,374,242.00 (that's $24.56 Billion). Let's look at how much Bill has made for each of various periods of time...
Unit of time
Quantity sinceMarch 13, 1986
Dollars made duringeach of these periods
Seconds
676,341,004(676.34 Million)
$36.30
4 Seconds
169,085,251.00(169.09 Million)
$145.22
Minutes
11,272,350.06(11.27 Million)
$2,178.37
Hours
187,872.50(187.9 Thousand)
$130,702.33
Days
7,828.02(7.8 Thousand)
$3,136,855.99($3.14 Million)
Weeks
1,118.28
$21,957,991.97($21.96 Million)
Months
260.93
$94,105,679($94.11 Million)
Years
21.44
$1,144,952,438.95($1.14 Billion)
Thanks to Robert Tweardy and Frank Isaacs for their information!
Note: We give 4 seconds its own entry because that is the period of time that Brad Templeton of the Bill Gates Wealth Page says it takes to pick up found money from the ground. Brad says that this amount is not worth Bill stooping to pick up. Draw your own conclusions.
Imagine an endless line of $1 bills laid end to end. If you began traveling along this line picking up dollar bills March 13, 1986 (the day Microsoft went public), and you wished to accumulate wealth at the same rate Bill has since that date, you would need to travel that line of bills picking them up at 12.66 MPH or 20.38 KPH.
Since March 13, 1986, Bill has been making money at a compounded interest rate of: 24.29% per year. Compare that to the historic growth rate of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is about 11%.
When will Bill become a TRILLIONAIRE? (By the US definition: $1,000,000,000,000.) If he can maintain the current 24.29% annual rate of growth, he will achieve trillionaire-hood in 17.00 Years, on Aug 17, 2024. Thanks to Lloyd Watts for the idea.
The US National Debt as of 8/18/2007 was $8,969,941,167,614.98 . (That's $8.97 Trillion.) At this current rate of growth, Bill will be able to pay off the ENTIRE U.S. National Debt on Sep 19, 2034. Thanks to Chad Aebischer (among others) for this suggestion.
And, just for laughs, what about a Quadrillionaire? At the same continuous growth rate, he will achieve Quadrillionaire-hood in 48.76 Years, on Apr 16, 1920. Thanks to Matt Green and Chris Guidi for the formulas.
Microsoft ProductsMicrosoft claims to have sold approximately 120 Million copies of Windows 95. If every one of those copies crashes or otherwise requires a reboot an average of once per day, and Bill were charged $1 per crash or reboot, his money would last 206.57 days or 0.56 years. Thanks to Kevin LaCour for the suggestion.
Born in the U.S.A.According to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, in Fiscal Year 2006, the United States Government printed paper currency worth a total of $156.82 Billion. Bill's net worth is 15.80% of that value. Double thanks to Frank Isaacs for the suggestion and new URL.
In 2004, George W. Bush won the US Presidental Election with a total of 62,028,285 votes. The electoral college aside, if Bill wanted to be President, he could have bought 62,028,286 votes (one more than Pres. Bush got), and paid each voter $399.64. Thanks to David Johansen (no, not that David Johansen!) for the suggestion.
NASA (the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has a 2007 budget totaling $16,102,000,000 or $16.1 Billion. This means that Bill could finance the United States' space effort (all by himself) for 1.53 years. Thanks to Jonathan M. Franz for the suggestion and statistic.
The US National Debt as of 8/18/2007 was $8,969,941,167,614.98 (That's $8.97 Trillion.) Bill's net worth is only 0.276% of that. Editorial comment: Keep that debt figure in mind when they talk about balancing the US budget. Balancing it is only the first step; then we still have to pay off the debt.
In October of 1997, the US Justice Department tried to assess a fine of $1 million per day against Microsoft Corporation for alleged violations of an antitrust agreement. If Mr. Gates were called upon to pay this fine out of his own pocket (which is NOT the case), he could pay it every day for 24,789.3 days, or 67.86 years. (Thanks to Paul Brackett and others for their suggestions.)
Let's take a look at the 3 branches of the US Government, and their 2007 salaries.
Office
Quantity
Salary
Total Salary
President of the United States
1
$400,000
$400,000
Vice President of the United States
1
$208,100
$208,100
Chief Justice of the United States (Supreme Court)
1
$208,100
$208,100
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court
8
$199,200
$1,593,600
United States Senators
100
$162100
$16,210,000
United States Representatives
435
$162100
$70,513,500
Total Salary for all these people
546
$89,133,300
Number of Times Bill could buy these people's salaries
329.68
Thanks to Ken Phillips for the suggestion and the stats.
Not to get too morbid, but many people have asked about Bill's U.S. tax liabilities. Let's look at what happens if Bill dies...
According to the Internet Death Clock, Bill will die on Thursday, August 9, 2029 at age 73. (That is 21.99 years from now.) If Bill continues to make money at the same rate of 24.29% per year, he will have $2,960,039,232,865.54 or $2.96 Trillion! Thanks to Christopher Guidi for the suggestion and the formulas!
Uncle Sam gets (in the form of Federal Estate Transfer Taxes) $11,764,800 plus 55% of everything in excess of $21,040,000 MINUS $1,000,000 (his unified estate tax credit). Based on his CURRENT net worth, that would come to $13,633,338,733.10 ($13.63 Billion)... UNLESS...
He leaves it all outright to his wife, Melinda, in which case Uncle Sam gets ZERO (until she dies, when they get another shot at it) OR
He leaves it all outright to charity, in which case Uncle Sam gets absolutely nothing.
It should be noted that Bill can gift $12,000 annually to as many individuals as he has money without incurring any estate transfer taxation. (OK, $24,000 per individual if Melinda elects to split gifts.) NOTE: We are NOT taking names at this web site.
One final note: When Bill dies, his estate will not pay a penny in income tax on the appreciation of his shares. In fact, whoever gets the appreciated shares could immediately sell those shares (assuming the price does not change) and not pay a penny of income tax. It's called a step up in basis and it's one of the last great estate planning tools remaining. (Thanks to Ben Utley, CFP for his suggestion and tax advice, and Chris Gorab for updating the figures.)
According to Yahoo Finance, as of 8/17/2007, the price of gold is $657.80 per troy ounce. There are 147 million troy ounces of gold in Fort Knox. (Fort Knox is the United States primary repository for its gold reserves.) All the gold in Fort Knox is, therefore, worth $96,696,600,000 or $96.7 Billion
Bill is worth 25.63% the value of all the gold in Fort Knox.
And how much is Bill worth per ounce? Well, we don't know how much he actually weighs, but we'll assume 180 lbs. (If you know better, let us know.) Gold is weighed in Troy Ounces; there are 14.583 Troy ounces in a pound. So, Bill's estimated 180 pounds is 2624.94 Troy ounces.
That means that Bill is worth $9,443,780.14 or $9.44 Million per ounce. This also means that Bill's body is worth 14,356.61 times more than gold! Thanks to Emily Hull and Matt Cruikshank for the suggestion.
How Much Does That Mean For ME?
According to the US Census Bureau, the population of the World on 08/18/07 was: 6,612,486,387 (That's 6.61 Billion). This means that Bill could give $3.74 to every person on the entire planet! And he'd still have $58,657,154 left over for incidentals.
The US Census Bureau also says the population of the US on 08/18/07 was: 302,634,174 (That's 302.63 Million). This means that Bill could give $81.91 to every person in the United States.
The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California seats 100,092 people. If it were full, Bill could give $247,665.7 to each person.
According to the Microsoft Fast Facts web page, on June 30, 2006, Microsoft had 71,172 employees. Though many of them are already millionaires, Bill could afford to give each of them $348,302.08. (Thanks to Frank Isaacs for the suggestion.)
The Sporting Life
If Bill wanted to spend all his time playing Pac-Man, assuming each 25¢ game lasts 10 minutes (he isn't very good at it), Bill could play for 1,885,265.51 Years. Thanks to David Holton for the suggestion.
It cost Mike Tyson $3 million (he forfeited 10% of the fight purse) when he bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear in a boxing match. Assuming that piece of ear weighed about 1/2 an ounce, Bill could afford to eat 258.22 pounds of Evander Holyfield if he were so inclined. (Thanks to George J Rickle II for the (somewhat sick) suggestion.)
According to Forbes Magazine the total value of all 121 Major League teams in all four major US Sports (in 2004) was $41.29 Billion. That's only 166.5% of Bill's fortune.
Let's look at the highest paid athlete in the 4 major US sports, and see how long they have to play to make Bill kinds of money.
Player, Team, Sport
Salary
Games per Season
Salary per Game
Seasons to Play to Make Bill Money
Alex Rodiguez, Texas Rangers, baseball
$25 million ($252 million over 10 years)
162
$154,320.98
991.57
Shaquille O'Neal, Los Angeles Lakers, basketball
$31.9 million
82
$389,024.39
777.09
Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts, football
$42 million
16
$2,625,000.00
590.22
Jaromir Jagr, Washington Capitols, Hockey
$11 million
82
$134,146.34
2,253.57
Thanks to Rob Prouty for the suggestion.
What if Bill were a Country?
Let's compare Bill's Net Worth with the Gross Domestic Products of the nations of the world.
GDP Data is current through 2005, and comes courtesy of The World Bank courtesy of Wikipedia
Ranking
Country
2005 Gross Domestic Product
1
United States
$12,455,068,000,000($12.46 Trillion)
2
Japan
$4,505,912,000,000($4.51 Trillion)
3
Germany
$2,781,900,000,000($2.78 Trillion)
73
Bulgaria
$26,648,000,000($26.65 Billion)
74
Syrian Arab Republic
$26,320,000,000($26.32 Billion)
75
Lithuania
$25,495,000,000($25.5 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
76
Oman
$24,284,000,000($24.28 Billion)
77
Sri Lanka
$23,479,000,000($23.48 Billion)
78
Lebanon
$22,210,000,000($22.21 Billion)
If we took the 2005 GDP of the United States, $12.46 Trillion, and used it to create a population with as much money as Bill has, we could create 502 of them.
The total GDP for the entire world (in 2005) was $44.38 Trillion,. We could create 1790 Bills. Thanks to Luis Klemas for this suggestion, too.
And What if Bill Were a Public Company?
While Bill is not a company, and Fortune Magazine's 2006 Fortune 500 rates companies on their total annual revenue, not Net Worth, it still makes for an interesting comparison...
Ranking
Company
2006 Gross Revenue
1
Exxon Mobil
$339,938,000,000($339.94 Billion)
2
Wal-Mart Stores
$315,654,000,000($315.65 Billion)
3
General Motors
$192,604,000,000($192.6 Billion)
48
Microsoft
$39,788,000,000($39.79 Billion)
81
TIAA-CREF
$25,916,800,000($25.92 Billion)
82
International Paper
$25,797,000,000($25.8 Billion)
83
Cisco Systems
$24,801,000,000($24.8 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
84
HCA
$24,455,000,000($24.46 Billion)
85
St. Paul Travelers Cos.
$24,365,000,000($24.37 Billion)
86
News Corp.
$23,859,000,000($23.86 Billion)
A more reasonable ranking of Bill among companies is one that ranks Bill's worth against the Market Capitalizations of the world's largest companies. (Market Capitalization is the product of the number of outstanding shares of a company's stock multiplied by its share price.)
These rankings come from net-comber.com, and are as of June 19, 2001, and are NOT updated.
Thanks to Brian McClendon for the suggestion and pointer.
Ranking
Company
June 27, 2001 MarketCapitalization
1
GENERAL ELECTRIC CO.
$485,429,200,000($485.43 Billion)
2
MICROSOFT CORP
$362,323,100,000($362.32 Billion)
3
EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION
$304,865,600,000($304.87 Billion)
4
PFIZER INC
$277,765,400,000($277.77 Billion)
5
CITIGROUP INC
$255,199,800,000($255.2 Billion)
101
EMERSON ELECTRIC CO
$27,133,870,000($27.13 Billion)
102
THE GAP INC
$27,099,820,000($27.1 Billion)
103
FIRST DATA CORP
$25,895,750,000($25.9 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
104
SAFEWAY INC
$24,648,710,000($24.65 Billion)
105
VERITAS SOFTWARE CORP
$24,520,410,000($24.52 Billion)
106
NASDAQ-100 INDEX TRCKNG STCK
$24,270,240,000($24.27 Billion)
Take It to the Bank
Another more appropriate comparison is comparing Bill's assets (net worth) to the assets of the largest Commercial Banks in the United States. They are from onlinebankingreports.com, as of December 31, 2000. More recent mergers are NOT accounted for.
Ranking
Bank
Assets as of Dec 31, 2000
1
Citicorp
$902,200,000,000($902.2 Billion)
2
Chase
$715,300,000,000($715.3 Billion)
3
Bank of America
$642,200,000,000($642.2 Billion)
36
Popular Inc
$28,100,000,000($28.1 Billion)
37
Harris Bank
$28,000,000,000($28 Billion)
38
Marshall & Ilsley
$26,100,000,000($26.1 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
39
Old Kent Financial
$23,900,000,000($23.9 Billion)
40
First Security
$23,300,000,000($23.3 Billion)
41
Astoria Financial Corp
$22,500,000,000($22.5 Billion)
Charity Starts in Redmond, Washington
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, there are 760,000 homeless people in America. Bill could give each of them $32,617.57. Thanks to Ricky Daulton for the suggestion.
According to the people at Save the Children it costs $240 to sponsor one child for a year. This means that Bill could save 103,288,984 (103.29 Million) of the children. Of course, there are only 58.5 million people (adults included) in all of Ethiopia.
According to the people at Make-A-Wish, it costs about $6600 to grant a wish to an ill child. Therefore, Bill could grant the wishes of 3,755,963 or 3.76 Million children. Thanks to Ricky Daulton for the suggestion.
It costs roughly $30,000 to purchase the supplies to build a 3 bedroom home for Habitat for Humanity. (Labor is donated.) Bill could donate supplies for 826,311 homes. Since these are 3 bedroom homes, let's assume 4 1/2 occupants per house; Bill could house 3,718,403 people. (Thanks to Thomas Talbert for the suggestion.)
If we created a state that consisted solely of these homes, let's call it Gatesylvania, let's see how the population of Gatesylvania would rank among the other states of the U.S.:
Ranking
U.S. State
2000 Population
1
California
33,871,648(33.87 Million)
2
Texas
20,851,820(20.85 Million)
3
New York
18,976,457(18.98 Million)
24
Colorado
4,301,261(4.3 Million)
25
Kentucky
4,041,769(4.04 Million)
26
South Carolina
4,012,012(4.01 Million)
Gatesylvania
3,718,403(3.72 Million)
27
Oklahoma
3,450,654(3.45 Million)
28
Oregon
3,421,399(3.42 Million)
29
Connecticut
3,405,565(3.41 Million)
Gatesylvania would be larger than the combined total populations of Wyoming, District of Columbia, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Laying Dollar Bills End to End
NOTE: The next sections discuss the conversion of Bill's wealth to $1 bills. Of course, according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, since 1986, when Microsoft was founded (and through 2005), 75,836,800,000 $1 bills have been printed. Bill's $24,789,356,242.00 comprise 32.68% of that total. (Thanks to Larry Moy for the suggestion.)
If you had 24,789,356,242 one dollar bills, and laid them end to end, you would have a line of bills that runs 2,402,248.1 miles.
Rand McNally says that it's 2912 miles from New York City to Seattle. Laying bills end to end, you could make that round trip 412.4 times.
The average distance to the moon is 238,855 miles. You could make that round trip 5.0 times.
If you spent 24 hours a day laying these bills end to end, and were able to sustain a rate of 2 bills per second, it would take you 393.03 years to complete the job.
Stacking Bills
If you took 24,789,356,242 one dollar bills, and could actually balance them in a stack, that stack would be 8,866,007.2 feet or 1,679 miles high.
By comparison, it's 200 miles from New York to Baltimore. If you took that stack and lay it down on the ground, it could make that trip between New York and Baltimore 8.3 times.
It's 2565 miles from New York to San Francisco. The stack of bills would cover 65.46% of the trip.
What if Bill decided to keep all his cash under his mattress? Let us assume that Bill and Melinda sleep on a King Size mattress. According to the folks at Slumberland Furniture, an American King Sized bed is 78 by 80 inches, or 6240 square inches, or 43 1/3 square feet in area. It takes 397.57 bills to cover a king-sized mattress. Using all of Bill's money (as $1 bills), you could cover the king-sized mattress with bills 62,352,038.91 bills deep. That means Bill would have a jump of 267,605.31 inches or 4.22 miles to get from the bed to the floor each morning, not counting the thickness of the bed itself. Thanks to Jeffery Lay for the suggestion.
The stack of 24,789,356,242 one dollar bills would weigh 54,602,106.2 pounds or 25,295.2 tons.
By comparison, a Boeing 747-400 weighs 800,000 pounds, or 400 tons. The money weighs 63.23 times more.
Wall-to-Wall Carpeting
If you took all these bills, and placed them all flat on the ground so they didn't overlap, they would cover an area of 62,022.39 acres or 96.91 square miles.
You could cover the entire surface area of Vatican City with dollar bills 570.44 times. That would be to a depth of 2.44 inches.
You could cover the entire surface area of Manhattan, NY with dollar bills 4.36 times, and with five dollar bills 0.87 times
How do we do it? Volume!
There are 24,605.90 dollar bills in a cubic foot. Bill's $24,789,356,242.00 would take up some 1,007,455.78 cubic feet.
A Boeing 747-400 holds 27,467 cubic feet of cargo. This means that Bill's money in $1 bills would fill 36.67 Boeing 747-400 cargo compartments! (Thanks to Kevin Day for his suggestion and statistics!)
However, 27,467 cubic feet of $1 bills or 675,850,255 (675.85 million) bills weighs 1,379,286 pounds or 689.64 tons. This is quite a bit more than the 124 ton rated carrying capacity of a Boeing 747-400.
So, if Bill actually wanted to fly all his money someplace (say to Manhattan, to carpet it), he'd need 203.9 Boeing 747-400s. (Thanks to Guy Sherr for his suggestion and statistics!)
However, New York's Empire State Building has a listed volume of 37 million cubic feet. Bill's cash would only fill 2.72% of that space!(Thanks to Frank Isaacs for the statistic.)
Time is Money; Money is Time
Another way to get a feel for the magnitude of these numbers is to apply them to objects besides money. Let's look at common units of time, expressed in Bill-sized quantities:
Units
One Million (1,000,000)
One Billion (1,000,000,000)
Bill's Net Worth(24,789,356,242.00)
Change in Bill's Net Worth Today(386,099,707.84)
Nanoseconds (Billionths of a second)
0.001 seconds
1 second
24.78 Seconds
0.38 Seconds
Microseconds (Millionths of a second)
1 second
16.66 Minutes
6.88 Hours
6.43 Minutes
Milliseconds (Thousandths of a second)
16.66 minutes
11.57 Days
9.42 Months
4.46 Days
Seconds
11.57 Days
31.68 Years
785.52 Years
12.23 Years
Minutes
1.90 Years
1901.28 Years
47,131.63 Years
734.08 Years
Hours
114.08 Years
114,077.12 Years
2,827,898.27 Years
44,045.14 Years
Days
2,737.86 Years
2,737,850.75 Years
67,869,558.49 Years
1,057,083.38 Years
What if Bill felt especially talkative? How long could he spend speaking long distance?
Price per minute
Duration of call
1¢
4,713,163.78 Years
5¢
942,632.75 Years
10¢
471,316.37 Years
15¢
314,210.91 Years
25¢
188,526.55 Years
$1.00
47,131.63 Years
$5.00
9,426.32 Years
$100
471.31 Years
$1 million
17.21 DaysThanks to Radoslav Ratkovsky for his suggestion!
What if you earned the US Minimum Wage? How long would it take you to earn Bill's fortune? Since September 1, 1997, the US Minimum Wage has been $5.15 per hour. If you worked continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and saved every bit of your earnings (disregarding taxes), you would need to work for 549,106.46 Years to earn Bill's money. If you took the wimpy approach, and only worked 40 hours a week, then it would take 2,306,247.13 Years. Thanks to Pteryx for his suggestion.
Note that, according to the Hunterian Museum Man's oldest known hominid ancestor, Australopithecus, lived between 3.5 and 4 million years ago. Thanks to Kenneth Badertscher for the pointer.
How much time could Bill have bought on the 2004 Super Bowl? CBS charged a record (at the time) $2.2 million for a 30 second commercial, or $4.4 million per minute. That means that Bill could purchase 3.91 Days of the game.
What about Internet access? Let's assume that it costs $20 per month, or $240 per year for typical access to an ISP. Bill could buy himself Internet access for 103,288,984.34 or 103.29 Million years. Thanks to Matt Decker-Maurer for the suggestion.
How Far Can You Make Your Money Go?
If time isn't adequate, let's look at Bill-sized quantities applied to distances, both metric and English.
Units
One Million (1,000,000)
One Billion (1,000,000,000)
Bill's Net Worth(24,789,356,242.00)
Change in Bill's Net Worth Today(386,099,707.84)
Microns (Millionths of a Meter)
1 meter
1 kilometer
24.78 kilometers
386.09 meters
Millimeters
1 kilometer
1,000 kilometers
24,789.35 kilometers
386.09 kilometers
Meters
1000 kilometers
1,000,000 kilometers
24,789,356.24 kilometers
386,099.70 kilometers
Inches
15.78 miles
15,782.82 miles
391,246.15 miles
6,093.74 miles
Feet
1,893.93 miles
1,893,939.39 miles
4,694,953.83 miles
73,124.94 miles
Miles
1,000,000.00 miles
10.75 A.U.s
266.55 A.U.s
4.15 A.U.s
Note: An A.U. or Astronomical Unit is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun. It is equivalent to 93,000,000 miles or 155,000,000 kilometers.
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Data Storage
Obviously, Bill has made his money in computer technology. Let's look at Bill-sized quantities in terms of disk (or memory) storage.
Units
One Million (1,000,000)
One Billion (1,000,000,000)
Bill's Net Worth(24,789,356,242.00)
Change in Bill's Net Worth Today(386,099,707.84)
Bits
122.07 Kilobytes
119.20 Megabytes
2.88 Gigabytes
46.02 Megabytes
Bytes
976.56 Kilobytes
953.67 Megabytes
23.08 Gigabytes
368.21 Megabytes
Kilobytes
953.67 Megabytes
931.32 Gigabytes
22.54 Terabytes
359.58 Gigabytes
(Thanks to Greg Williams for the sugestion.)
A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words
In the world of animation, it takes 24 drawings to create one second of animation. A roll of 24 exposure 35mm film from York Photo Labs costs $2.50, plus $3.50 for processing, and $1 for shipping or $7 per roll. Assuming he wanted to create an animated film using Kodak film, in this way, Bill's animated film could last 112.21 Years. Thanks to Agharahimi for the suggestion.
We're told that a picture is worth 1000 words.
Bill could afford to purchase and process 3,541,336,606.00 rolls of film. At 24 photos per roll, that's 84,992,078,544.00 pictures. That translates to 84,992,078,544,000.00 or 84.99 Trillion words.
My college English professor told me that you can put an average of about 500 words on a typical piece of typing paper. So, if you are still with us, Bill's fortune is worth 169,984,157,088.00 or 169.98 Billion sheets of paper.
A typical type of paper stacks 250 sheets to the inch. Bill's college essay would stack 679,936,628.35 inches high or 10,731.32 miles high.
It would take 448.87 Years to print it out of a Laser Printer doing 5 pages per minute. (Better get it right the first time!) Thanks to Matt Steinhoff for his suggestion.
Buying Power
So with all this money, what can Bill buy? Let's look around...
Item to purchase
Cost
Number Bill can afford
Copy of Microsoft Windows XP Professional
$299.95
82,644,961(82.64 Million)
NASA's Space Shuttle
$1.7 Billion
14.58
Pfizer's Viagra tablets
$10
2,478,935,624(At one per day, that'll last him 6,786,955.84 years.)
The "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy
$298 Million
83
Boeing 777-300ER Commercial Airplane
$253 million
97.98
Shaquile O'Neal's 2004 NBA earnings (not counting endorsements or films)
$31.9 million
777.09
Bugatti Veyron 16.4
$1,192,057
20,795(20.8 Thousand)
2005 Chevrolet Aveo
$8935
2,774,410(2.77 Million)
Four Years' tuition, room & board at Harvard University (at 2005-2006 rate: $41,675/year)
$166,700
148,706.39(148.7 Thousand)
Spending it all
Let's say you wanted to spend every dime of Bill's money, and you set a time limit of 32 years to do it. Assuming you worked 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, you would have to spend it at the following rates:
Per year
$774,667,382.56
$774.67 Million
Per month
$64,555,615.21
$64.56 Million
Per week
$14,846,059.45
$14.85 Million
Per day
$2,120,923.70
$2.12 Million
Per hour
$88,371.82
$88.4 Thousand
Per minute
$1,472.86
$1.5 Thousand
Per second
$24.54
$24
Thanks to Glen Aidukas for the suggestion!
What Does The Money Really Mean?So Bill has all this money. You have money too. It's all a matter of magnitude.
Let's compare Bill's net worth to yours graphically:
Bill's Net Worth$24,789,356,242
Your Net WorthLess than $61,973,390
Thanks to Sheldon Sydia for his suggestion.
When you spend or earn money, the amount of the transaction is a percentage of your net worth; let's see how much Bill has to spend (or earn) to match your percentage. For the sake of argument, let's say you have a net worth of $70000.
Transaction
Change to your net worth
Proportional change to Bill's net worth (assuming yours is $70000)
Find a penny on the sidewalk
+ 1¢
+ $3,541.33
Dig 22¢ from the cushions of your couch
+ 22¢
+ $77,909.40($77.9 Thousand)
Go see a current movie, with a date (popcorn is extra)
- $16
- $5,666,138.56($5.67 Million)
Have a moderate dinner for 2
- $60
- $21,248,019.63($21.25 Million)
Win $100 in the lottery
+ $100
+ $35,413,366.06($35.41 Million)
Make a lease payment on your car
- $299
- $105,885,964.51($105.89 Million)
Pay the mortgage
- $2000
- $708,267,321.20($708.27 Million)
Buy an average car
- $18000
- $6,374,405,890.80($6.37 Billion)
Buy a house
- $250000
- $88,533,415,150.00($88.53 Billion)
Hit the lottery for $10 million
+ $10,000,000
+$3,541,336,606,000.00($3.54 Trillion)Thanks to Larry Russo for the suggestion.
Other Fun Bill Gates Links You May Like
Brad Templeton's Bill Gates Wealth Page
Make Me Richer Than Bill Gates This one is REALLY funny.
Microsoft Fine-O-Matic
Stuff We're Looking For...
We are always looking for some facts that we will include in the content of this page. If the information is verifiable, please email pointers to us. Thank you! If we like it, we'll credit you!
Publications in which this page is written up.
Some of the other really cool Web Badges.
Other ideas for how we might express Bill's Net Worth (but NOT more things he could buy!).
Please don't ask us for any of his money. WE DON'T HAVE ANY! We will ignore any inquiries about sharing his money.
A Non-Bill-Related Quote for Today
The author of this page, Evan Marcus, has been collecting quotes, funny, clever, wise, cynical, or whatever from various sources since about 1985. Opinions expressed in the list may or may not agree with our own actual opinions, assuming we have any. You will get a different quote each time you reload this page.
The list presently contains 5110 entries.
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" "Ask a glass of water." -- Hitchhikers' Guide {#4655}
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That means that Bill could give each person who has visited us $3784634.54. Don't hold your breath waiting for your piece of the pie. (Thanks to Kenneth Lewallen for the idea.)
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Welcome to the Bill Gates Net Worth Page
William H. Gates III, Co-founder, Chairman, and ex-CEO of Microsoft has been rated by Forbes Magazine as the richest person in the world for the 13th consecutive year (as of October 2006).
Bill's net worth remains at such astounding levels that we decided to find a way to present it that made sense to the average reader.
Please note that we are only counting Bill's holdings of Microsoft stock, not his other vast holdings.
Based on Microsoft's current stock price,Bill is worth: $24.79 Billion.Read on for the details.
If you like this page, please be sure to check out our many awards and media appearances! Thank you!
Gates Quote of the Day
It's like walking through the Vatican with the Pope. -- Tom Brokaw after walking the floor at Comdex with Bill
Table of Contents
How much is Bill worth right now?
MSFT: Microsoft Stock
Wealth Accumulation
Microsoft products
Born in the U.S.A.
How Much Does That Mean For ME?
The Sporting Life
What if Bill were a Country?
And What if Bill Were a Public Company?
Take It to the Bank
Charity Starts in Redmond, Washington
Laying Dollar Bills End to End
Stacking Bills
Wall-to-Wall Carpeting
How do we do it? Volume!
Time is Money; Money is Time
How Far Can You Make Your Money Go?
Data Storage
A Picture is Worth 1000 Words
Buying Power
Spending it all
What Does The Money Really Mean?
Other Fun Bill Gates Links You May Like
Stuff We're Looking For
A Non-Bill-Related Quote for the Day
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How much is Bill worth right now?
We obviously do not have a full reckoning of everything Bill owns. But, according to the Yahoo! Insider Trades site, Bill has 877,499,336 shares of MSFT. This figure reflects all trades made through 3-Aug-07 , which is the most recent trade. (Thanks to Jeff Call for the pointer!)
As of 4:00pm ET on 8/17/2007, Microsoft was selling for $28.25.
Some simple multiplication tells us that he owns $24,789,356,242.00 worth of Microsoft stock. (That's $24.79 Billion.)
MSFT: Microsoft Stock
Microsoft has a total of 10,700,000,000 shares outstanding, worth a total of $302,275,000,000, which is Microsoft's market capitalization. (That's $302.28 Billion.)
Bill's 877,499,336 shares represents 8.20% of Microsoft.
On March 13, 1986, the day Microsoft went public, according to Microsoft's Public Relations Department, Bill owned 11,142,000 shares of MSFT stock. At MSFT's IPO price of $21 per share Bill's initial fortune was worth $233,982,000 or $233.98 Million. Adjusted for splits, if Bill had not sold any stock since then, he would have 3,208,896,000 shares. Those shares would be worth $90,651,312,000.00 or $90.65 Billion today. Thanks to Michael Noer and Julie Sullivan at Wired Magazine for their help here.
Microsoft stock's all-time high price (adjusted for splits) is $119.7511. That means that Bill's all-time high net worth (if he hadn't sold any shares) is: $105,081,510,735.26 or $105.08 Billion.
If Bill had never sold any of his MSFT stock, at his maximum price, Bill's share would be worth: $384,268,825,785.60 or $384.27 Billion.
Microsoft went public on March 13, 1986. Its IPO price was $21/share, which, after adjustments for splits is equivalent to 7.29¢.
Microsoft stock has split a total of 9 times, increasing the number of shares, and decreasing each share's value by a factor of 288. If MSFT stock had never split, the share price today would be $8136.00. (Thanks to Michael Chauvin for the suggestion)
Wealth Accumulation
Microsoft's stock was up by $0.44 today. This means that Bill made another $386,099,707.84 today. (That's $386.1 Million.)
Since midnight (Eastern Time), 343 minutes have passed. Since that time, Bill has made money at the rate of $1,125,655.12 per minute. That's $1.13 Million per minute!
The day Microsoft went public, Bill's fortune was worth $233,982,000 or $233.98 Million.
In the time since March 13, 1986, Bill's Net Worth has increased by $24,555,374,242.00 (that's $24.56 Billion). Let's look at how much Bill has made for each of various periods of time...
Unit of time
Quantity sinceMarch 13, 1986
Dollars made duringeach of these periods
Seconds
676,341,004(676.34 Million)
$36.30
4 Seconds
169,085,251.00(169.09 Million)
$145.22
Minutes
11,272,350.06(11.27 Million)
$2,178.37
Hours
187,872.50(187.9 Thousand)
$130,702.33
Days
7,828.02(7.8 Thousand)
$3,136,855.99($3.14 Million)
Weeks
1,118.28
$21,957,991.97($21.96 Million)
Months
260.93
$94,105,679($94.11 Million)
Years
21.44
$1,144,952,438.95($1.14 Billion)
Thanks to Robert Tweardy and Frank Isaacs for their information!
Note: We give 4 seconds its own entry because that is the period of time that Brad Templeton of the Bill Gates Wealth Page says it takes to pick up found money from the ground. Brad says that this amount is not worth Bill stooping to pick up. Draw your own conclusions.
Imagine an endless line of $1 bills laid end to end. If you began traveling along this line picking up dollar bills March 13, 1986 (the day Microsoft went public), and you wished to accumulate wealth at the same rate Bill has since that date, you would need to travel that line of bills picking them up at 12.66 MPH or 20.38 KPH.
Since March 13, 1986, Bill has been making money at a compounded interest rate of: 24.29% per year. Compare that to the historic growth rate of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is about 11%.
When will Bill become a TRILLIONAIRE? (By the US definition: $1,000,000,000,000.) If he can maintain the current 24.29% annual rate of growth, he will achieve trillionaire-hood in 17.00 Years, on Aug 17, 2024. Thanks to Lloyd Watts for the idea.
The US National Debt as of 8/18/2007 was $8,969,941,167,614.98 . (That's $8.97 Trillion.) At this current rate of growth, Bill will be able to pay off the ENTIRE U.S. National Debt on Sep 19, 2034. Thanks to Chad Aebischer (among others) for this suggestion.
And, just for laughs, what about a Quadrillionaire? At the same continuous growth rate, he will achieve Quadrillionaire-hood in 48.76 Years, on Apr 16, 1920. Thanks to Matt Green and Chris Guidi for the formulas.
Microsoft ProductsMicrosoft claims to have sold approximately 120 Million copies of Windows 95. If every one of those copies crashes or otherwise requires a reboot an average of once per day, and Bill were charged $1 per crash or reboot, his money would last 206.57 days or 0.56 years. Thanks to Kevin LaCour for the suggestion.
Born in the U.S.A.According to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, in Fiscal Year 2006, the United States Government printed paper currency worth a total of $156.82 Billion. Bill's net worth is 15.80% of that value. Double thanks to Frank Isaacs for the suggestion and new URL.
In 2004, George W. Bush won the US Presidental Election with a total of 62,028,285 votes. The electoral college aside, if Bill wanted to be President, he could have bought 62,028,286 votes (one more than Pres. Bush got), and paid each voter $399.64. Thanks to David Johansen (no, not that David Johansen!) for the suggestion.
NASA (the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has a 2007 budget totaling $16,102,000,000 or $16.1 Billion. This means that Bill could finance the United States' space effort (all by himself) for 1.53 years. Thanks to Jonathan M. Franz for the suggestion and statistic.
The US National Debt as of 8/18/2007 was $8,969,941,167,614.98 (That's $8.97 Trillion.) Bill's net worth is only 0.276% of that. Editorial comment: Keep that debt figure in mind when they talk about balancing the US budget. Balancing it is only the first step; then we still have to pay off the debt.
In October of 1997, the US Justice Department tried to assess a fine of $1 million per day against Microsoft Corporation for alleged violations of an antitrust agreement. If Mr. Gates were called upon to pay this fine out of his own pocket (which is NOT the case), he could pay it every day for 24,789.3 days, or 67.86 years. (Thanks to Paul Brackett and others for their suggestions.)
Let's take a look at the 3 branches of the US Government, and their 2007 salaries.
Office
Quantity
Salary
Total Salary
President of the United States
1
$400,000
$400,000
Vice President of the United States
1
$208,100
$208,100
Chief Justice of the United States (Supreme Court)
1
$208,100
$208,100
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court
8
$199,200
$1,593,600
United States Senators
100
$162100
$16,210,000
United States Representatives
435
$162100
$70,513,500
Total Salary for all these people
546
$89,133,300
Number of Times Bill could buy these people's salaries
329.68
Thanks to Ken Phillips for the suggestion and the stats.
Not to get too morbid, but many people have asked about Bill's U.S. tax liabilities. Let's look at what happens if Bill dies...
According to the Internet Death Clock, Bill will die on Thursday, August 9, 2029 at age 73. (That is 21.99 years from now.) If Bill continues to make money at the same rate of 24.29% per year, he will have $2,960,039,232,865.54 or $2.96 Trillion! Thanks to Christopher Guidi for the suggestion and the formulas!
Uncle Sam gets (in the form of Federal Estate Transfer Taxes) $11,764,800 plus 55% of everything in excess of $21,040,000 MINUS $1,000,000 (his unified estate tax credit). Based on his CURRENT net worth, that would come to $13,633,338,733.10 ($13.63 Billion)... UNLESS...
He leaves it all outright to his wife, Melinda, in which case Uncle Sam gets ZERO (until she dies, when they get another shot at it) OR
He leaves it all outright to charity, in which case Uncle Sam gets absolutely nothing.
It should be noted that Bill can gift $12,000 annually to as many individuals as he has money without incurring any estate transfer taxation. (OK, $24,000 per individual if Melinda elects to split gifts.) NOTE: We are NOT taking names at this web site.
One final note: When Bill dies, his estate will not pay a penny in income tax on the appreciation of his shares. In fact, whoever gets the appreciated shares could immediately sell those shares (assuming the price does not change) and not pay a penny of income tax. It's called a step up in basis and it's one of the last great estate planning tools remaining. (Thanks to Ben Utley, CFP for his suggestion and tax advice, and Chris Gorab for updating the figures.)
According to Yahoo Finance, as of 8/17/2007, the price of gold is $657.80 per troy ounce. There are 147 million troy ounces of gold in Fort Knox. (Fort Knox is the United States primary repository for its gold reserves.) All the gold in Fort Knox is, therefore, worth $96,696,600,000 or $96.7 Billion
Bill is worth 25.63% the value of all the gold in Fort Knox.
And how much is Bill worth per ounce? Well, we don't know how much he actually weighs, but we'll assume 180 lbs. (If you know better, let us know.) Gold is weighed in Troy Ounces; there are 14.583 Troy ounces in a pound. So, Bill's estimated 180 pounds is 2624.94 Troy ounces.
That means that Bill is worth $9,443,780.14 or $9.44 Million per ounce. This also means that Bill's body is worth 14,356.61 times more than gold! Thanks to Emily Hull and Matt Cruikshank for the suggestion.
How Much Does That Mean For ME?
According to the US Census Bureau, the population of the World on 08/18/07 was: 6,612,486,387 (That's 6.61 Billion). This means that Bill could give $3.74 to every person on the entire planet! And he'd still have $58,657,154 left over for incidentals.
The US Census Bureau also says the population of the US on 08/18/07 was: 302,634,174 (That's 302.63 Million). This means that Bill could give $81.91 to every person in the United States.
The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California seats 100,092 people. If it were full, Bill could give $247,665.7 to each person.
According to the Microsoft Fast Facts web page, on June 30, 2006, Microsoft had 71,172 employees. Though many of them are already millionaires, Bill could afford to give each of them $348,302.08. (Thanks to Frank Isaacs for the suggestion.)
The Sporting Life
If Bill wanted to spend all his time playing Pac-Man, assuming each 25¢ game lasts 10 minutes (he isn't very good at it), Bill could play for 1,885,265.51 Years. Thanks to David Holton for the suggestion.
It cost Mike Tyson $3 million (he forfeited 10% of the fight purse) when he bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear in a boxing match. Assuming that piece of ear weighed about 1/2 an ounce, Bill could afford to eat 258.22 pounds of Evander Holyfield if he were so inclined. (Thanks to George J Rickle II for the (somewhat sick) suggestion.)
According to Forbes Magazine the total value of all 121 Major League teams in all four major US Sports (in 2004) was $41.29 Billion. That's only 166.5% of Bill's fortune.
Let's look at the highest paid athlete in the 4 major US sports, and see how long they have to play to make Bill kinds of money.
Player, Team, Sport
Salary
Games per Season
Salary per Game
Seasons to Play to Make Bill Money
Alex Rodiguez, Texas Rangers, baseball
$25 million ($252 million over 10 years)
162
$154,320.98
991.57
Shaquille O'Neal, Los Angeles Lakers, basketball
$31.9 million
82
$389,024.39
777.09
Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts, football
$42 million
16
$2,625,000.00
590.22
Jaromir Jagr, Washington Capitols, Hockey
$11 million
82
$134,146.34
2,253.57
Thanks to Rob Prouty for the suggestion.
What if Bill were a Country?
Let's compare Bill's Net Worth with the Gross Domestic Products of the nations of the world.
GDP Data is current through 2005, and comes courtesy of The World Bank courtesy of Wikipedia
Ranking
Country
2005 Gross Domestic Product
1
United States
$12,455,068,000,000($12.46 Trillion)
2
Japan
$4,505,912,000,000($4.51 Trillion)
3
Germany
$2,781,900,000,000($2.78 Trillion)
73
Bulgaria
$26,648,000,000($26.65 Billion)
74
Syrian Arab Republic
$26,320,000,000($26.32 Billion)
75
Lithuania
$25,495,000,000($25.5 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
76
Oman
$24,284,000,000($24.28 Billion)
77
Sri Lanka
$23,479,000,000($23.48 Billion)
78
Lebanon
$22,210,000,000($22.21 Billion)
If we took the 2005 GDP of the United States, $12.46 Trillion, and used it to create a population with as much money as Bill has, we could create 502 of them.
The total GDP for the entire world (in 2005) was $44.38 Trillion,. We could create 1790 Bills. Thanks to Luis Klemas for this suggestion, too.
And What if Bill Were a Public Company?
While Bill is not a company, and Fortune Magazine's 2006 Fortune 500 rates companies on their total annual revenue, not Net Worth, it still makes for an interesting comparison...
Ranking
Company
2006 Gross Revenue
1
Exxon Mobil
$339,938,000,000($339.94 Billion)
2
Wal-Mart Stores
$315,654,000,000($315.65 Billion)
3
General Motors
$192,604,000,000($192.6 Billion)
48
Microsoft
$39,788,000,000($39.79 Billion)
81
TIAA-CREF
$25,916,800,000($25.92 Billion)
82
International Paper
$25,797,000,000($25.8 Billion)
83
Cisco Systems
$24,801,000,000($24.8 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
84
HCA
$24,455,000,000($24.46 Billion)
85
St. Paul Travelers Cos.
$24,365,000,000($24.37 Billion)
86
News Corp.
$23,859,000,000($23.86 Billion)
A more reasonable ranking of Bill among companies is one that ranks Bill's worth against the Market Capitalizations of the world's largest companies. (Market Capitalization is the product of the number of outstanding shares of a company's stock multiplied by its share price.)
These rankings come from net-comber.com, and are as of June 19, 2001, and are NOT updated.
Thanks to Brian McClendon for the suggestion and pointer.
Ranking
Company
June 27, 2001 MarketCapitalization
1
GENERAL ELECTRIC CO.
$485,429,200,000($485.43 Billion)
2
MICROSOFT CORP
$362,323,100,000($362.32 Billion)
3
EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION
$304,865,600,000($304.87 Billion)
4
PFIZER INC
$277,765,400,000($277.77 Billion)
5
CITIGROUP INC
$255,199,800,000($255.2 Billion)
101
EMERSON ELECTRIC CO
$27,133,870,000($27.13 Billion)
102
THE GAP INC
$27,099,820,000($27.1 Billion)
103
FIRST DATA CORP
$25,895,750,000($25.9 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
104
SAFEWAY INC
$24,648,710,000($24.65 Billion)
105
VERITAS SOFTWARE CORP
$24,520,410,000($24.52 Billion)
106
NASDAQ-100 INDEX TRCKNG STCK
$24,270,240,000($24.27 Billion)
Take It to the Bank
Another more appropriate comparison is comparing Bill's assets (net worth) to the assets of the largest Commercial Banks in the United States. They are from onlinebankingreports.com, as of December 31, 2000. More recent mergers are NOT accounted for.
Ranking
Bank
Assets as of Dec 31, 2000
1
Citicorp
$902,200,000,000($902.2 Billion)
2
Chase
$715,300,000,000($715.3 Billion)
3
Bank of America
$642,200,000,000($642.2 Billion)
36
Popular Inc
$28,100,000,000($28.1 Billion)
37
Harris Bank
$28,000,000,000($28 Billion)
38
Marshall & Ilsley
$26,100,000,000($26.1 Billion)
Bill Gates
$24,789,356,242($24.79 Billion)
39
Old Kent Financial
$23,900,000,000($23.9 Billion)
40
First Security
$23,300,000,000($23.3 Billion)
41
Astoria Financial Corp
$22,500,000,000($22.5 Billion)
Charity Starts in Redmond, Washington
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, there are 760,000 homeless people in America. Bill could give each of them $32,617.57. Thanks to Ricky Daulton for the suggestion.
According to the people at Save the Children it costs $240 to sponsor one child for a year. This means that Bill could save 103,288,984 (103.29 Million) of the children. Of course, there are only 58.5 million people (adults included) in all of Ethiopia.
According to the people at Make-A-Wish, it costs about $6600 to grant a wish to an ill child. Therefore, Bill could grant the wishes of 3,755,963 or 3.76 Million children. Thanks to Ricky Daulton for the suggestion.
It costs roughly $30,000 to purchase the supplies to build a 3 bedroom home for Habitat for Humanity. (Labor is donated.) Bill could donate supplies for 826,311 homes. Since these are 3 bedroom homes, let's assume 4 1/2 occupants per house; Bill could house 3,718,403 people. (Thanks to Thomas Talbert for the suggestion.)
If we created a state that consisted solely of these homes, let's call it Gatesylvania, let's see how the population of Gatesylvania would rank among the other states of the U.S.:
Ranking
U.S. State
2000 Population
1
California
33,871,648(33.87 Million)
2
Texas
20,851,820(20.85 Million)
3
New York
18,976,457(18.98 Million)
24
Colorado
4,301,261(4.3 Million)
25
Kentucky
4,041,769(4.04 Million)
26
South Carolina
4,012,012(4.01 Million)
Gatesylvania
3,718,403(3.72 Million)
27
Oklahoma
3,450,654(3.45 Million)
28
Oregon
3,421,399(3.42 Million)
29
Connecticut
3,405,565(3.41 Million)
Gatesylvania would be larger than the combined total populations of Wyoming, District of Columbia, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Laying Dollar Bills End to End
NOTE: The next sections discuss the conversion of Bill's wealth to $1 bills. Of course, according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, since 1986, when Microsoft was founded (and through 2005), 75,836,800,000 $1 bills have been printed. Bill's $24,789,356,242.00 comprise 32.68% of that total. (Thanks to Larry Moy for the suggestion.)
If you had 24,789,356,242 one dollar bills, and laid them end to end, you would have a line of bills that runs 2,402,248.1 miles.
Rand McNally says that it's 2912 miles from New York City to Seattle. Laying bills end to end, you could make that round trip 412.4 times.
The average distance to the moon is 238,855 miles. You could make that round trip 5.0 times.
If you spent 24 hours a day laying these bills end to end, and were able to sustain a rate of 2 bills per second, it would take you 393.03 years to complete the job.
Stacking Bills
If you took 24,789,356,242 one dollar bills, and could actually balance them in a stack, that stack would be 8,866,007.2 feet or 1,679 miles high.
By comparison, it's 200 miles from New York to Baltimore. If you took that stack and lay it down on the ground, it could make that trip between New York and Baltimore 8.3 times.
It's 2565 miles from New York to San Francisco. The stack of bills would cover 65.46% of the trip.
What if Bill decided to keep all his cash under his mattress? Let us assume that Bill and Melinda sleep on a King Size mattress. According to the folks at Slumberland Furniture, an American King Sized bed is 78 by 80 inches, or 6240 square inches, or 43 1/3 square feet in area. It takes 397.57 bills to cover a king-sized mattress. Using all of Bill's money (as $1 bills), you could cover the king-sized mattress with bills 62,352,038.91 bills deep. That means Bill would have a jump of 267,605.31 inches or 4.22 miles to get from the bed to the floor each morning, not counting the thickness of the bed itself. Thanks to Jeffery Lay for the suggestion.
The stack of 24,789,356,242 one dollar bills would weigh 54,602,106.2 pounds or 25,295.2 tons.
By comparison, a Boeing 747-400 weighs 800,000 pounds, or 400 tons. The money weighs 63.23 times more.
Wall-to-Wall Carpeting
If you took all these bills, and placed them all flat on the ground so they didn't overlap, they would cover an area of 62,022.39 acres or 96.91 square miles.
You could cover the entire surface area of Vatican City with dollar bills 570.44 times. That would be to a depth of 2.44 inches.
You could cover the entire surface area of Manhattan, NY with dollar bills 4.36 times, and with five dollar bills 0.87 times
How do we do it? Volume!
There are 24,605.90 dollar bills in a cubic foot. Bill's $24,789,356,242.00 would take up some 1,007,455.78 cubic feet.
A Boeing 747-400 holds 27,467 cubic feet of cargo. This means that Bill's money in $1 bills would fill 36.67 Boeing 747-400 cargo compartments! (Thanks to Kevin Day for his suggestion and statistics!)
However, 27,467 cubic feet of $1 bills or 675,850,255 (675.85 million) bills weighs 1,379,286 pounds or 689.64 tons. This is quite a bit more than the 124 ton rated carrying capacity of a Boeing 747-400.
So, if Bill actually wanted to fly all his money someplace (say to Manhattan, to carpet it), he'd need 203.9 Boeing 747-400s. (Thanks to Guy Sherr for his suggestion and statistics!)
However, New York's Empire State Building has a listed volume of 37 million cubic feet. Bill's cash would only fill 2.72% of that space!(Thanks to Frank Isaacs for the statistic.)
Time is Money; Money is Time
Another way to get a feel for the magnitude of these numbers is to apply them to objects besides money. Let's look at common units of time, expressed in Bill-sized quantities:
Units
One Million (1,000,000)
One Billion (1,000,000,000)
Bill's Net Worth(24,789,356,242.00)
Change in Bill's Net Worth Today(386,099,707.84)
Nanoseconds (Billionths of a second)
0.001 seconds
1 second
24.78 Seconds
0.38 Seconds
Microseconds (Millionths of a second)
1 second
16.66 Minutes
6.88 Hours
6.43 Minutes
Milliseconds (Thousandths of a second)
16.66 minutes
11.57 Days
9.42 Months
4.46 Days
Seconds
11.57 Days
31.68 Years
785.52 Years
12.23 Years
Minutes
1.90 Years
1901.28 Years
47,131.63 Years
734.08 Years
Hours
114.08 Years
114,077.12 Years
2,827,898.27 Years
44,045.14 Years
Days
2,737.86 Years
2,737,850.75 Years
67,869,558.49 Years
1,057,083.38 Years
What if Bill felt especially talkative? How long could he spend speaking long distance?
Price per minute
Duration of call
1¢
4,713,163.78 Years
5¢
942,632.75 Years
10¢
471,316.37 Years
15¢
314,210.91 Years
25¢
188,526.55 Years
$1.00
47,131.63 Years
$5.00
9,426.32 Years
$100
471.31 Years
$1 million
17.21 DaysThanks to Radoslav Ratkovsky for his suggestion!
What if you earned the US Minimum Wage? How long would it take you to earn Bill's fortune? Since September 1, 1997, the US Minimum Wage has been $5.15 per hour. If you worked continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and saved every bit of your earnings (disregarding taxes), you would need to work for 549,106.46 Years to earn Bill's money. If you took the wimpy approach, and only worked 40 hours a week, then it would take 2,306,247.13 Years. Thanks to Pteryx for his suggestion.
Note that, according to the Hunterian Museum Man's oldest known hominid ancestor, Australopithecus, lived between 3.5 and 4 million years ago. Thanks to Kenneth Badertscher for the pointer.
How much time could Bill have bought on the 2004 Super Bowl? CBS charged a record (at the time) $2.2 million for a 30 second commercial, or $4.4 million per minute. That means that Bill could purchase 3.91 Days of the game.
What about Internet access? Let's assume that it costs $20 per month, or $240 per year for typical access to an ISP. Bill could buy himself Internet access for 103,288,984.34 or 103.29 Million years. Thanks to Matt Decker-Maurer for the suggestion.
How Far Can You Make Your Money Go?
If time isn't adequate, let's look at Bill-sized quantities applied to distances, both metric and English.
Units
One Million (1,000,000)
One Billion (1,000,000,000)
Bill's Net Worth(24,789,356,242.00)
Change in Bill's Net Worth Today(386,099,707.84)
Microns (Millionths of a Meter)
1 meter
1 kilometer
24.78 kilometers
386.09 meters
Millimeters
1 kilometer
1,000 kilometers
24,789.35 kilometers
386.09 kilometers
Meters
1000 kilometers
1,000,000 kilometers
24,789,356.24 kilometers
386,099.70 kilometers
Inches
15.78 miles
15,782.82 miles
391,246.15 miles
6,093.74 miles
Feet
1,893.93 miles
1,893,939.39 miles
4,694,953.83 miles
73,124.94 miles
Miles
1,000,000.00 miles
10.75 A.U.s
266.55 A.U.s
4.15 A.U.s
Note: An A.U. or Astronomical Unit is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun. It is equivalent to 93,000,000 miles or 155,000,000 kilometers.
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Data Storage
Obviously, Bill has made his money in computer technology. Let's look at Bill-sized quantities in terms of disk (or memory) storage.
Units
One Million (1,000,000)
One Billion (1,000,000,000)
Bill's Net Worth(24,789,356,242.00)
Change in Bill's Net Worth Today(386,099,707.84)
Bits
122.07 Kilobytes
119.20 Megabytes
2.88 Gigabytes
46.02 Megabytes
Bytes
976.56 Kilobytes
953.67 Megabytes
23.08 Gigabytes
368.21 Megabytes
Kilobytes
953.67 Megabytes
931.32 Gigabytes
22.54 Terabytes
359.58 Gigabytes
(Thanks to Greg Williams for the sugestion.)
A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words
In the world of animation, it takes 24 drawings to create one second of animation. A roll of 24 exposure 35mm film from York Photo Labs costs $2.50, plus $3.50 for processing, and $1 for shipping or $7 per roll. Assuming he wanted to create an animated film using Kodak film, in this way, Bill's animated film could last 112.21 Years. Thanks to Agharahimi for the suggestion.
We're told that a picture is worth 1000 words.
Bill could afford to purchase and process 3,541,336,606.00 rolls of film. At 24 photos per roll, that's 84,992,078,544.00 pictures. That translates to 84,992,078,544,000.00 or 84.99 Trillion words.
My college English professor told me that you can put an average of about 500 words on a typical piece of typing paper. So, if you are still with us, Bill's fortune is worth 169,984,157,088.00 or 169.98 Billion sheets of paper.
A typical type of paper stacks 250 sheets to the inch. Bill's college essay would stack 679,936,628.35 inches high or 10,731.32 miles high.
It would take 448.87 Years to print it out of a Laser Printer doing 5 pages per minute. (Better get it right the first time!) Thanks to Matt Steinhoff for his suggestion.
Buying Power
So with all this money, what can Bill buy? Let's look around...
Item to purchase
Cost
Number Bill can afford
Copy of Microsoft Windows XP Professional
$299.95
82,644,961(82.64 Million)
NASA's Space Shuttle
$1.7 Billion
14.58
Pfizer's Viagra tablets
$10
2,478,935,624(At one per day, that'll last him 6,786,955.84 years.)
The "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy
$298 Million
83
Boeing 777-300ER Commercial Airplane
$253 million
97.98
Shaquile O'Neal's 2004 NBA earnings (not counting endorsements or films)
$31.9 million
777.09
Bugatti Veyron 16.4
$1,192,057
20,795(20.8 Thousand)
2005 Chevrolet Aveo
$8935
2,774,410(2.77 Million)
Four Years' tuition, room & board at Harvard University (at 2005-2006 rate: $41,675/year)
$166,700
148,706.39(148.7 Thousand)
Spending it all
Let's say you wanted to spend every dime of Bill's money, and you set a time limit of 32 years to do it. Assuming you worked 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, you would have to spend it at the following rates:
Per year
$774,667,382.56
$774.67 Million
Per month
$64,555,615.21
$64.56 Million
Per week
$14,846,059.45
$14.85 Million
Per day
$2,120,923.70
$2.12 Million
Per hour
$88,371.82
$88.4 Thousand
Per minute
$1,472.86
$1.5 Thousand
Per second
$24.54
$24
Thanks to Glen Aidukas for the suggestion!
What Does The Money Really Mean?So Bill has all this money. You have money too. It's all a matter of magnitude.
Let's compare Bill's net worth to yours graphically:
Bill's Net Worth$24,789,356,242
Your Net WorthLess than $61,973,390
Thanks to Sheldon Sydia for his suggestion.
When you spend or earn money, the amount of the transaction is a percentage of your net worth; let's see how much Bill has to spend (or earn) to match your percentage. For the sake of argument, let's say you have a net worth of $70000.
Transaction
Change to your net worth
Proportional change to Bill's net worth (assuming yours is $70000)
Find a penny on the sidewalk
+ 1¢
+ $3,541.33
Dig 22¢ from the cushions of your couch
+ 22¢
+ $77,909.40($77.9 Thousand)
Go see a current movie, with a date (popcorn is extra)
- $16
- $5,666,138.56($5.67 Million)
Have a moderate dinner for 2
- $60
- $21,248,019.63($21.25 Million)
Win $100 in the lottery
+ $100
+ $35,413,366.06($35.41 Million)
Make a lease payment on your car
- $299
- $105,885,964.51($105.89 Million)
Pay the mortgage
- $2000
- $708,267,321.20($708.27 Million)
Buy an average car
- $18000
- $6,374,405,890.80($6.37 Billion)
Buy a house
- $250000
- $88,533,415,150.00($88.53 Billion)
Hit the lottery for $10 million
+ $10,000,000
+$3,541,336,606,000.00($3.54 Trillion)Thanks to Larry Russo for the suggestion.
Other Fun Bill Gates Links You May Like
Brad Templeton's Bill Gates Wealth Page
Make Me Richer Than Bill Gates This one is REALLY funny.
Microsoft Fine-O-Matic
Stuff We're Looking For...
We are always looking for some facts that we will include in the content of this page. If the information is verifiable, please email pointers to us. Thank you! If we like it, we'll credit you!
Publications in which this page is written up.
Some of the other really cool Web Badges.
Other ideas for how we might express Bill's Net Worth (but NOT more things he could buy!).
Please don't ask us for any of his money. WE DON'T HAVE ANY! We will ignore any inquiries about sharing his money.
A Non-Bill-Related Quote for Today
The author of this page, Evan Marcus, has been collecting quotes, funny, clever, wise, cynical, or whatever from various sources since about 1985. Opinions expressed in the list may or may not agree with our own actual opinions, assuming we have any. You will get a different quote each time you reload this page.
The list presently contains 5110 entries.
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Page last updated April 9, 2007.
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