Bill Gates decides to leave only 1% of his wealth to his children; ‘fourth son’ gets 99% of billionaire inheritance

Billionaire Bill Gates built his fortune of US$124.5 billion (R$617 billion) at the head of Microsoft over the years. Today he occupies seventh place among the richest in the world, according to Forbs, but he has already made it clear that fortune is not that important in his life. And he wants the same for his children.

Gates declared that Jennifer, 27, Rory, 23, and Phoebe, 21, would inherit less than 1% of his fortune, earning “just $10 million each” (about R$50 million). “It’s a disservice to children to have huge sums of wealth. It distorts everything they can do in creating their own path,” the billionaire said in an interview with This Morning.

He and his ex-wife, Melinda French (who he divorced in 2017), must leave 99% of their fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, considered their “fourth child”. By 2026, they intend to invest US$9 billion per year (around R$45 billion) in areas of innovation, such as disease prevention, reducing child mortality, improving food security and climate adaptation.

“Money has no use to me beyond a certain point. Its usefulness lies exclusively in building an organization and delivering resources to the poorest,” he said.

Bill and Melinda’s three children seem to be following their parents’ wishes. Jennifer, 27, completed her master’s degree in public health at Columbia University last year and won the Excellence in General Public Health award after studying biology at Stanford. She is married to Egyptian knight Nayel Nassar, with whom she had a daughter in 2023.

Rory, 24, graduated from the University of Chicago with “a double major and a master’s degree” that she earned in just four years. Phoebe, 21, is a student at Stanford and frequently appears with her father at charity events.