Gates Foundation sold Microsoft stake

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust has fully exited Microsoft, ending one of the longest-running links between Bill Gates’ philanthropy and the company he co-founded. The move was disclosed in the trust’s first-quarter 2026 Form 13F, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on May 15. Social media posts on May 24 recirculated the filing and highlighted a broad reshaping of the trust’s public-equity portfolio. The filing shows Microsoft no longer appeared among the trust’s holdings after being a top position in prior quarters. ### When did the Microsoft sale actually become public? The SEC filing date was May 15, 2026, not May 24. The Gates Foundation Trust’s first-quarter 13F showed 22 holdings worth about $31.7 billion at quarter-end and listed Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, Canadian National Railway and Caterpillar among its largest positions, with no Microsoft stake remaining. (13f.info) May 24 was when market-focused X accounts and follow-on stories pushed the filing back into circulation. That social-media wave appears to be what prompted renewed attention to the trade, but the underlying disclosure was already public in the SEC filing nine days earlier. ### How big was the position the trust sold? (13f.info) The final Microsoft holding was 7.7 million shares, according to multiple reports based on the May 15 filing. At recent Microsoft prices, that stake was valued at roughly $3.2 billion to $3.7 billion, depending on the reference date used in those reports. (13finsight.com) The trust had still held Microsoft at the end of 2025. A filing tracker shows Microsoft among the top holdings in the fourth quarter of 2025, when the trust reported a public-equity portfolio worth about $35.4 billion. By the end of the first quarter of 2026, that total had fallen to about $31.7 billion and Microsoft had been eliminated from the list. (finance.yahoo.com) ### Where did the money appear to go? The first-quarter filing shows Berkshire Hathaway and Waste Management as the trust’s two largest disclosed U.S. equity positions after Microsoft’s removal. Filing-based analysis cited by market outlets said the reshuffle left the trust concentrated in a smaller group of industrial and defensive holdings. (13f.info) MarketWireNews posts described the move as a reallocation of roughly 43% of a roughly $33 billion public-equity portfolio into two other holdings. The filing itself supports the broader point that Berkshire Hathaway and Waste Management rose to dominate the disclosed portfolio, though 13F reports show quarter-end holdings rather than the exact dates or prices of each trade. (13f.info) ### Why was the Microsoft exit drawing attention now? Bill Gates said in May 2025 that the Gates Foundation would spend $200 billion over the next 20 years and close by 2045. The foundation said at the time it was accelerating its timetable for giving, and Gates said he would give away virtually all of his wealth through the foundation over that period. (13f.info) That timeline has shaped how investors and philanthropy watchers read the Microsoft exit. Some reports tied the sale to the foundation’s plan to increase charitable spending and move toward its 2045 sunset, though the trust’s 13F filing itself does not state a reason for the trade. ### Does this mean Bill Gates is personally dumping Microsoft? (gatesfoundation.org) The filing covers the Gates Foundation Trust, which manages the foundation’s investment portfolio, not Bill Gates’ personal account. That distinction matters because 13F forms report certain institutional equity holdings and do not provide a full picture of Gates’ personal assets or private investments. (gatesfoundation.org) The next formal checkpoint will come with the trust’s second-quarter 2026 13F, which should be filed with the SEC by mid-August. That filing will show whether Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management and the trust’s other top holdings remained in place after the Microsoft exit. (13f.info)