$ cat ./records/gates-co-founds-biotech-pioneer-icos-later-maker-of-cialis-1990.txt
Gates Co-Founds Biotech Pioneer ICOS, Later Maker of Cialis
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In 1990, Bill Gates was an original investor in ICOS, a Bothell, Washington biotech that launched with about $33 million — then the largest venture financing in biotech history. Gates held roughly an 8% stake and sat on the board until 2005. ICOS became best known for developing tadalafil, marketed as the erectile-dysfunction drug Cialis, and in 2006 was acquired by its partner Eli Lilly for about $2.1 billion. The investment was an early sign of Gates's enduring interest in the life sciences, long before the Gates Foundation made global health his focus.
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Related Accomplishments
2026
Gates Foundation Trust Sells Off the Last of Its Microsoft Stock
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
Gates's Charitable Endowment Is Now Led by Berkshire, Not Microsoft
By 2026, the publicly disclosed stock portfolio of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust — the endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy — was led not by Microsoft but by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, Canadian National Railway, Caterpillar, and Deere. Decades of diversification, plus Warren Buffett's stock gifts, left it concentrated in railroads, waste, heavy equipment, and Buffett's conglomerate, while Microsoft — the source of the original fortune — had largely been sold down. The unglamorous, value-oriented mix reflects the long stewardship of Gates's money manager, Michael Larson, through Cascade Investment.
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