French Gates divorced the Microsoft cofounder in 2021 and resigned as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in June. So a new transfer of funds does raise some questions.
Three years after reaching a confidential divorce settlement in 2021, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates is still transferring stock to his former wife of 27 years, Melinda French Gates. Last Tuesday, French Gates reported receiving an additional $1.2 billion of public company stock, boosting her fortune to an estimated $30.2 billion as of 2:15 pm Eastern time Tuesday. She now ranks as the 12th richest woman in the world.
Gates, who is now worth an estimated $105.9 billion, reported gifting French Gates a 7.1% stake in automotive retailer AutoNation that is currently worth $470 million. That leaves him with an 18% stake in the company that is currently worth $1.2 billion.
French Gates also received a 1% stake in the Canadian National Railway Company that is currently worth $690 million. That’s in addition to the 1.6% stake in the freight transportation network she already owned as a result of the divorce settlement. estimates that Bill Gates now has a 0.4% stake in the company that is currently worth $300 million. (Gates is no longer required to report his share activity after dropping below the SEC’s disclosure threshold in 2022. Representatives for Gates and French Gates did not respond to requests for comment.)
It’s unclear whether this latest gift of stock is part of the $12.5 billion that French Gates announced she would be getting as part of her decision to resign as co-chair of the Gates Foundation in June, after a nearly 24-year run. The mechanics of that transfer have not been disclosed, and representatives for Gates and French Gates wouldn’t comment.
As a couple, Gates and French Gates have given away more than $45 billion to charitable causes during their lifetimes, according to ’ estimates, with a focus on health and poverty alleviation. That’s second only to Warren Buffett, who has done much of his more than $59.9 billion of charitable giving through the Gates Foundation.
French Gates has big plans for her own charitable giving. In May, she committed to donate $1 billion over three years to support women’s and girls’ rights. And in 2022, she put $674 million into a new foundation, Pivotal Philanthropies. It’s likely that she’ll be doing more charitable giving through that foundation as time goes on.
