Bill Gates
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist
Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft and later turned to philanthropy and climate work. He chairs the Gates Foundation and has written books on climate, pandemics and his own early life.
3 summaries 1h 03 min of listening
American Born 1955 in Seattle, United States
About Bill Gates
Bill Gates was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. At Lakeside School he became friends with Paul Allen. He enrolled at Harvard University in 1973, then left in 1975 to co-found Microsoft with Allen, and he served as its CEO for 25 years. Gates later put much of his attention into philanthropy through the Gates Foundation, where he is chair. He founded Breakthrough Energy, which works to commercialize clean energy and other climate technologies, and TerraPower, which invests in nuclear technology. In 2010 he and Warren Buffett launched the Giving Pledge. His books in our catalog include How to Avoid a Climate Disaster and How to Prevent the Next Pandemic. Source Code: My Beginnings, published in 2025, is the first of three planned memoirs and covers his childhood and the early days of Microsoft.