# Bill Gates' Fortune **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 6, 2001, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-gates-fortune/71512 "2001-07-06T18:05:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kgriffey79](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@kgriffey79](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kgriffey79)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-gates-fortune/71512/1 "2001-07-06T18:05:14Z")
How much of his money is in stocks and how much does he have access to in banks and such?? Just wondering ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-gates-fortune/71512/2 "2001-07-06T18:35:26Z")
Any of our Seattle dopers volunteer to peek over his shoulder next time they see Bill Gates writing a check at the grocery store, and tell us what they see on the balance line? I read a book once on the history of personal computers (actually I’ve read more than one, but I think this came from “Accidental Empires” by Robert X. Cringely) which included the following anecdote: Someone standing in line behind Bill Gates at a Seattle grocery store got tired of seeing Mr. Gates trying to get exact change out of his wallet, and said “here, I’ll just give you the extra 50 cents” and Mr. Gates took the man’s 50 cents. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-gates-fortune/71512/3 "2001-07-06T18:45:44Z")
Arnold, you closed one duplicate, and answered in another. There were 3 of them. I went to the trouble of digging up his MSFT holdings here: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=77072](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=77072) he has about 700 million shares of MSFT, worth about $50 billion (somewhat less, lately), which is the major portion of his net worth. That of course, doesn’t address how much of the few extra billion he has is in cash. Close one of the remaining two, as you see fit. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-gates-fortune/71512/4 "2001-07-06T18:51:37Z")
Sorry yabob. And good answer.