Fun Facts About Bill Gates
- Bill Gates solved an unsolved problem posed in a combinatorics class: his pancake sorting algorithm held the record as the fastest version for over 30 years.[1]
- Gates, Paul Allen and two friends were once banned from a company computer for a summer after being caught exploiting bugs in its operating system to get free computer time.[1]
- At 17, Gates started a venture with Paul Allen called Traf-O-Data to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor.[1]
- Microsoft began with a bluff: Gates told the makers of the Altair computer he was working on a BASIC interpreter for it, though he and Allen had no Altair and had written no code.[1]
- IBM first approached Microsoft in 1980 about software for its personal computer after Gates's mother mentioned Microsoft to IBM's CEO, John Opel.[1]
- In 2017 Gates teamed up with Roger Federer in a sold-out charity tennis match in Seattle to support Federer's foundation's work in Africa.[1][3][4]
- Bill Gates was alive at the same time as Le Corbusier — their lives overlapped for 10 years (1955–1965).[1][2][5][6]
- Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were both born in 1955.[1][2][7][8]
William Henry Gates III is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Following Microsoft's initial public offering in 1986 and the subsequent increase in its stock price, Gates became the world's then-youngest billionaire in 1987, at age 31. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's wealthiest person in their The World's Billionaires list for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years consecutively from 1995 to 2007. Gates became the first centibillionaire in 1999, when his net worth briefly surpassed US$100 billion. According to Forbes, as of July 2026, his net worth stood at US$106.5 billion, making him the 19th-wealthiest individual in the world.[1]
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Questions About Bill Gates
When was Bill Gates born?
Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955, and is alive today.
How old is Bill Gates?
Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955, and turned 71 on October 28, 2026.
What is Bill Gates known for?
Bill Gates is known for: Co-founder of Microsoft and philanthropist. William Henry Gates III is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Following Microsoft's initial public offering in 1986 and the subsequent increase in its stock price, Gates became the world's then-youngest billionaire in 1987, at age 31. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's wealthiest person in their The World's Billionaires list for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years consecutively from 1995 to 2007. Gates became the first centibillionaire in 1999, when his net worth briefly surpassed US$100 billion. According to Forbes, as of July 2026, his net worth stood at US$106.5 billion, making him the 19th-wealthiest individual in the world.
Who was alive at the same time as Bill Gates?
Bill Gates's closest contemporary was Noam Chomsky. Their lives overlapped for 71 years.
Sources
- Bill Gates — Wikipedia. Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Bill Gates (Q5284) — Wikidata
- Roger Federer — Wikipedia
- Roger Federer (Q1426) — Wikidata
- Le Corbusier — Wikipedia
- Le Corbusier (Q4724) — Wikidata
- Steve Jobs — Wikipedia
- Steve Jobs (Q19837) — Wikidata
- Portrait: Bill Gates at the European Commission - 2025 - P067383-987995 (cropped).jpg — Wikimedia Commons. © European Union, 2026, CC BY 4.0