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[IMPACT_METRICS.TXT] · cat --all
$59.5B+
Donated to Charity
More than the GDP of 100 nations combined.
~1 Billion
PCs at Peak Dominance
One in seven people on earth ran his software.
25
Predictions Proven Correct
Including a global pandemic — warned in 2015.
50 Years
Of Documented Impact
From his first line of code to present day. Continuous, sourced record.
[CASE_RECORD] · 1981-08-12 · CROSS-REFERENCE: MICROSOFT_IBM
$ query --id=ibm-deal --verbose
IBM needed an operating system for its first personal computer. Gates didn't have one. He licensed an existing system for roughly $50,000, renamed it MS-DOS, and handed IBM what they needed — but kept the right to license it to every other manufacturer. When IBM PC clones flooded the market, every one of them needed MS-DOS. Microsoft collected royalties from an entire industry it hadn't built.
By 1990, MS-DOS was running on more than 100 million PCs. The deal Gates made at 25 became the foundation of the largest software company in the world.
$explore_the_1980s↵DEAL_METRICS.DAT
~$50K
Cost to acquire MS-DOS
Purchased from Seattle Computer Products, 1981
100M+
PCs running MS-DOS by 1990
Every IBM clone paid Microsoft a royalty
Age 25
Gates when he signed the IBM deal
The decision that created the PC era
[QUOTES_ON_RECORD] · VERIFIED · ATTRIBUTED
Every line below was written before the world had a chance to disagree.
OUTPUT_01
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.”
— Bill Gates · The Road Ahead, 1995
OUTPUT_02
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.”
— Bill Gates · The Road Ahead, 1995
[ALERT] · PREDICTION_VERIFIED · 2015 → 2020
“If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war.”
— Bill Gates · TED Talk · April 3, 2015
Five years later, COVID-19 killed over 7 million people. He was right — and this wasn't luck. Every prediction in this archive has been verified against documented outcomes. No speculation. No cherry-picking. 25 predictions. 25 confirmed.
ADDITIONAL_VERIFIED_PREDICTIONS.LOG
Predicted 2010 → Verified 2020
Solar Energy Would Become Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels
Solar fell 90% in cost by 2023. The IEA called it the cheapest electricity ever recorded.
Predicted 2018 → Verified 2023
CRISPR Gene Editing Would Cure Hereditary Diseases
The FDA approved the first CRISPR therapy for sickle cell disease in December 2023.
Predicted 1999 → Verified 2015
Smart Homes Would Respond to Voice Commands
Amazon Echo (2014) and Google Home (2016) made his 1999 vision real — 16 years later.
[ARCHIVE_RECENT] · LAST_MODIFIED: TODAY
1990s
Despite his reputation for frugality in some areas, Bill Gates has long indulged a passion for cars, assembling a collection that has included several Porsches — among them the 911 he has owned for decades and the storied 959 — as well as other classics. His automotive tastes, and the saga of importing the then-illegal 959, are among the more colorful footnotes of his personal life.
Read Full Story1990s
For years Bill Gates retreated twice a year to a secluded cabin for a solitary 'Think Week,' during which he read stacks of papers, books, and employee proposals with no interruptions, emerging with strategic memos that shaped Microsoft's direction. The ritual became famous as a model of deep, focused thinking by a busy executive, and was credited with helping spark major pivots — including Microsoft's embrace of the internet. Gates carried the habit of voracious, deliberate reading into his philanthropy.
1980s
Bill Gates and Apple's Steve Jobs were the defining rivals of the personal-computer age — collaborators turned antagonists who sparred for decades over who copied whom, from graphical interfaces to mobile devices. Their relationship swung between partnership (Microsoft built software for the Mac and rescued Apple in 1997) and sharp public jabs, and Gates spoke movingly of Jobs after his 2011 death.
1980s
Before marrying Melinda French, Bill Gates dated software entrepreneur and venture capitalist Ann Winblad, a relationship that evolved into an unusual, enduring friendship. The two reportedly continued an annual long-weekend retreat together — with Melinda's awareness — to discuss technology and big ideas, an arrangement Gates spoke about openly. Winblad, a pioneering woman in software and venture capital, was an intellectual peer whose influence Gates publicly acknowledged.
2026
In the first quarter of 2026, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust sold its remaining Microsoft shares, fully exiting a position in the very company that created Gates's fortune — capping a long, deliberate diversification away from the stock. The endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy, managed separately from its grant-making through Cascade, is now anchored instead by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, railroads, and heavy-equipment makers. The sale underscored how thoroughly Gates's giving had decoupled from Microsoft's day-to-day fortunes.
2026
Commonwealth Fusion Systems — backed by Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy — hit a major hardware milestone heading into 2026, installing the first of 18 powerful high-temperature superconducting magnets in its SPARC tokamak near Boston. CFS is racing to achieve 'first plasma' in 2026 and net energy gain in 2027, aiming to prove that commercial fusion power is possible. It is among several fusion ventures Gates has funded in his long search for an 'energy miracle' to fight climate change.
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[TIMELINE_EXCERPT] · 5 DECADES · 5 INFLECTION_POINTS
1975
1970s
A 19-year-old drops out of Harvard to write code for a computer most people had never heard of.
1981
1980s
IBM needs an OS. Gates doesn't have one — but gets one, licenses it, and keeps the rights to everything.
1995
1990s
Microsoft ships Windows 95 to 40 million buyers. The operating system becomes the world's infrastructure.
2000
2000s
He steps back from CEO. The Gates Foundation launches. The richest man on earth starts giving it away.
2023
2010s–Now
TerraPower breaks ground. CRISPR cures sickle cell. The effects are still compounding.
[WEALTH_FILE] · CONFIDENTIAL · SOURCED
At 31, he was the world's youngest self-made billionaire. At 44, he had held the richest-person title for nearly a decade and was worth $101 billion. Then he started giving it away — more systematically, and at greater scale, than almost anyone in history. This file tracks the full arc: the rise, the peak, and the $59.5 billion he has transferred out of his own net worth.
$open_wealth_tracker↵$101B
Peak Net Worth
Dot-com peak, 1999 — world's richest person
13 yrs
World's Richest
13 of 16 years between 1995 and 2009
$59.5B+
Donated to Date
Through Gates Foundation since 2000
Age 31
Became a Billionaire
1987 — the world's youngest self-made
[EXPLORE_SUBDIRECTORY] · ls --long
/predictions/
COVID in 2015. Tablets in 1999. Solar dominance in 2010. See all 25 verified predictions.
$ open →
/timeline/
From a Harvard dorm in 1975 to eradicating polio. Every milestone in order.
$ open →
/quotes/
On luck, software, failure, and what still scares him. Verified, in full context.
$ open →
/wealth/
World's richest for 13 years. Here's where the money came from — and what's left.
$ open →
[CATEGORY_INDEX] · ls /events --group-by-type
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One developer. >300 verified entries. Zero ads. Forever free.
No sponsors, no paywall, no algorithm. If this archive has been useful to you, reader support is what keeps it running.