--- title: Here's How Much Bill Gates Is Worth on His 61st Birthday description: Bill Gates is celebrating his birthday today and the tech magnate has billions of reasons to celebrate. authors: - name: Kristen Bahler role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/ bio: Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. Today, she leads Money's sponsored content channel and reader-favorite franchises like Best Places to Live and Best Places to Travel. education: Northeastern University, MA Journalism at_money_since: 2016 articles: 52 covers: - Business - Banking - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-bahler/ published: '2016-10-28T16:27:59.000Z' modified: '2024-05-08T04:14:48.000Z' section: Business tags: - Bill Gates - billionares - Charity - Net Worth - pubdesk - world's richest people word_count: 277 canonical: https://money.com/bill-gates-birthday-richest-man/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![French President Receives Bill Gates at ELysee Palace in Paris](https://img.money.com/2016/10/gettyimages-543265818.jpg) *Bill Gates at the Elysee Presidential Palace on June 27, 2016 in Paris, France.* Bill Gates is celebrating his birthday today, with, we assume, a cake topped with 61 dollar-shaped candles. Being the richest man on the planet is one reason for him to celebrate. According to [*Forbes*](http://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/), Gates' net worth rests at $81.9 billion, putting him safely at number one on the "wealthiest people in the world" list, $6.5 billion ahead of Zara's Amancio Ortega, and $14.2 billion ahead of Amazon's Jeff Bezos. More impressive, perhaps, is Gates' charitable contributions. The [Microsoft](http://fortune.com/fortune500/microsoft-25/) founder has donated over $36.7 billion through [The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation](http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Information/Foundation-Factsheet), the grant-making organization founded by Gates and his wife. Together, [the couple has pledged](https://givingpledge.org/) to give "the vast majority" of their assets the the charitable organization. The private foundation focuses on saving and improving lives in the U.S. and abroad. In 2014, the foundation [pledged $50 million](https://money.com/best-ways-donate-charity-ebola/?iid=sr-link1) to fight ebola is West Africa. In June, it donated 100,000 chickens to sub-saharan africans living in extreme poverty. And earlier this month, it directed $250 million to a world health initiative based at the University of Washington in Seattle -- one of the largest contributions in the university's history. In an interview with the U.K. newspaper [*The Evening Standard*](http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/bill-gates-just-like-my-friend-mark-zuckerberg-im-not-here-to-create-a-dynasty-a3379066.html), published Wednesday, reporter Rosamund Urwin asks the mogul what he wants for his birthday. > "His answer, disappointingly, is that he receives exactly what other sixty-something men who are hard to buy for do: “books and movies”," Urwin writes. "Gates had a big party last year, but is struggling to muster much excitement about the big 6-1: 'Not a particularly interesting birthday.'" See, even the richest man in the world isn't all that different from the rest of us. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-birthday-richest-man/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Entrepreneurship", "item": "https://money.com/entrepreneurship/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Here's How Much Bill Gates Is Worth on His 61st Birthday" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-birthday-richest-man/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/bill-gates-birthday-richest-man/", "name": "Here's How Much Bill Gates Is Worth on His 61st Birthday", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-10-28T16:27:59.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-birthday-richest-man/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-birthday-richest-man/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-08T04:14:48.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Here's How Much Bill Gates Is Worth on His 61st Birthday", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/10/gettyimages-543265818.jpg", "width": 3830, "height": 2556, "caption": "French President Receives Bill Gates at ELysee Palace in Paris" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kristen Bahler", "url": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/#author", "description": "Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. 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