Bill Gates’ epic blunder cost him fortune

He could have ended up richer than Amazon founder Jezz Bezos and Tesla founder Elon Musk combined if he had hung on to his stock.

The fourth richest man in the world, who is worth an estimated $US138.5 billion according to Forbes, held the equivalent of more than 2 billion shares in Microsoft back in September 1998 when it first became the world’s most valuable company, Bloomberg analysis found.

While Microsoft has been knocked off the most valuable perch in the years to come, it recently made a resurgence stealing the top ranking from Apple at the end of October.

It means Gates’s billions of shares would have been valued on Friday at about $US693 billion, double Musk’s net worth of $US340.4 billion and more than triple Bezos’s net worth of $US200.3 billion.

But he sold the majority of his shares when he left the Microsoft board last year, announcing he was leaving the software giant in March 2020 to focus on his philanthropic efforts.

It was later claimed that he left as the Microsoft board was pursuing an investigation into the billionaire’s romantic relationship and affair with a female employee.

Bill and Melinda Gates shocked the world when they announced their divorce in May.

The powerhouse couple finalised the details of their divorce three months ago after publicly announcing they wanted to end their marriage.

The couple’s agreement to the divorce hinged on a separation contract which outlined how they would divvy up their property, debts and court fees incurred; however, that was not made public as it was not filed in the court proceedings.

But Gates may not have been able to keep up with Musk’s endeavours in the long term as its been predicted he could create an eye-watering new record as the world’s first ever trillionaire.

With an estimated fortune of $241 billion, analysts from investment bank Morgan Stanley forecast he could reach trillionaire status. Surprisingly though, it won’t come from his electric car company Tesla.

Instead, it was predicted that his space exploration business SpaceX, which was founded in 2002, would be the money-maker.

Meanwhile, Bezos’ company Amazon is being plagued with staff shortages and supply chain disruptions with the tech giant recently revealing its operating income fell to $US4.9 billion ($A6.5 billion) in the third quarter, compared to $US6.2 billion ($A8.2 billion) during the same period last year.

Its also forecast income of between zero and $US3 billion ($A3.9 billion) in the fourth quarter, which would be far below its $US6.9 billion ($A9.15 billion) last year.

Originally published as Bill Gates could have ended up richer than Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos combined