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Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and his wife Melinda, have announced that they will end their marriage after 27 years, questioning an association that has redone modern philanthropy and supported one of the leading private answers to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The couple revealed the decision on Monday in a concrete note on their social media accounts, in which they said the fate of their marriage would not affect the work of their foundation, the world’s largest private charity.
The couple has dedicated much of their estimated fortune to $ 124 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which seeks to improve health and reduce poverty around the world. Working with Warren Buffett, they also promoted the Giving Pledge as a way for wealthy entrepreneurs to donate more of their wealth during their lifetime.
“After much reflection and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” the couple said in a statement Monday. The couple said that “we will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives.”
In a separate statement, the foundation said the couple “would remain co-chairs and administrators” and that “no change is planned in their roles or organization.”
Forbes puts the couple’s wealth at $ 124 billion and lists Bill Gates as the fourth richest person in the world, after Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Elon Musk of Tesla and Bernard Arnault, founder of the Louis Vuitton conglomerate.
The separation comes two years after the divorce of Bezos from MacKenzie Scott, who raised questions about the fate of the Amazon founder’s significant voting stake in his tech company.
By contrast, Gates’ separation will likely have little impact on Microsoft, as Bill Gates, 65, left the company’s board a year ago and had a 1% stake.
For the past two decades, the couple has run the world’s largest private charitable foundation, which has distributed $ 55 billion since its launch in 2000. Its endowment, which includes annual donations from Buffett, amounts to $ 49.8 billion. dollars.
The Seattle-based Gates Foundation has established itself as one of the most influential philanthropies in the world, with a focus on fighting poverty, disease and inequality from sub-Saharan Africa to the United States. .
Melinda, 56, has long been known as the most powerful woman in philanthropy, focusing her work on the rights of women and girls, from family planning to maternal health. He also founded an investment company called Pivotal Ventures in 2015 to support groups that promised to advance social progress.
Their work on health and development has also made them influential figures in funding vaccine development and debating the fight against climate change, with Bill recently published a book entitled How to avoid a climate disaster.
The couple met in 1987, shortly after Melinda joined Microsoft. In a 2019 Netflix documentary, Melinda recalled how she found Bill compiling a list of the pros and cons of marriage on a blackboard before he proposed to her.
It is widely seen that he played an influential role in getting his attention turned to full-time philanthropy, at a time when his aggressive business tactics had put the company on a path to collapse. with the United States Department of Justice. He continued to play a secondary role in the management of Microsoft, before gradually cutting ties completely and directing all his attention to philanthropy.
Depending on the terms of any divorce agreement, Melinda Gates could immediately rival Scott, whose fortune Forbes puts up $ 60 billion, for influence in the world of philanthropy.
Scott, who took her second surname as a new surname, became the third richest woman in the world after Bezos’ divorce and quickly signed the Giving Pledge, a pledge to give away most of her wealth. He has since remarried.
As part of the settlement, which is believed to be the largest of its kind, Bezos was able to do so hold back all of your pre-Amazon voting rights. Its 12% post-settlement share was worth about $ 107 billion.
Additional reports from Dave Lee in San Francisco
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