Page 8 - Forbes Magazine-October 31, 2018

FORBES

2. BILL GATES
$97 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: *
SOURCE: MICROSOFT
AGE: 63 RESIDENCE: MEDINA, WA
PHILANTHROPY SCORE:
After a 24-year-run as No. 1 on The Forbes 400, Gates has been eclipsed by a fellow Seattle entrepreneur with a fast-
rising stock. No tears there. Gates sits on the board of Microsoft and still owns a 1.3% stake, worth $11.2 billion, in
the software company he cofounded 43 years ago. The rest of his fortune is invested in a mix of stocks, startup firms
and more, including a nearly 11% stake in Ecolab, a water treatment and hygiene service firm. He has also invested
in Memphis Meats, a startup that grows “clean meat” from chicken, duck and cow cells. In July he disclosed that his
father had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and announced that he and three other Forbes 400 members
(Leonard Lauder, Charles Schwab and Dagmar Dolby), in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foun-
dation, are putting $30 million into a fund that will accelerate diagnosing the disease. But he spends most of his
time focused on solving the world’s big problems through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to which he’s donat-
ed about $35.8 billion, mostly in Microsoft shares. He’s encouraged philanthropists around the globe, and in 2015 he
cofounded the China Global Philanthropy Institute with Ray Dalio (No. 25) and 3 wealthy Chinese.

3. WARREN BUFFETT
$88.3 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: *
SOURCE: BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY
AGE: 88 RESIDENCE: OMAHA
PHILANTHROPY SCORE:
The revered investor, who has long shied away
from investing in technology, has changed his
tune. Berkshire Hathaway, which owns more than
60 companies, including Geico and Dairy Queen,
has been buying Apple shares since 2016. Berk-
shire became the tech company’s second-largest
investor in early 2018 after amassing a 5% stake.
With $103 billion in cash, his firm continues to 5. LARRY ELLISON
look for other investments. In August, it took a $58.4 BILLION T
stake in Indian digital-payments platform Paytm. SELF-MADE SCORE: (
SOURCE: ORACLE
Shares of Berkshire Hathaway climbed 17% in AGE: 74 RESIDENCE: WOODSIDE, CA
the last year, boosting Buffett’s fortune by $10.3
billion even as he gave away $3.4 billion in July. PHILANTHROPY SCORE:
As he approaches 90, he is making good on a There’s no end to Ellison’s entrepre-
promise to part with 99% of his fortune. He has neurial drive. This year he launched
already donated over $35 billion, much of it to the a wellness startup called Sensei,
foundation of his friends Bill and Melinda Gates. whose first project is hydroponic
farming on the Hawaiian island of
Lanai, which Ellison bought in 2012
for a reported $300 million. Ellison,
who was raised by his great-aunt and
uncle, built databases for the CIA SEBASTIAN MICKE/PARIS MATCH/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES; MICHAEL PRINCE; F. SCOTT SCHAFER/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES; VINCENT SANDOVAL/GETTY IMAGES
4. MARK ZUCKERBERG before cofounding software firm Or-
acle in 1977. He stepped down as
$61 BILLION T SELF-MADE SCORE: * Oracle’s CEO in 2014 but still serves
SOURCE: FACEBOOK as its chairman and chief technology
AGE: 34 RESIDENCE: PALO ALTO, CA
officer. In 2016, Ellison pledged $200
PHILANTHROPY SCORE: million to the University of Southern
The Facebook founder and CEO has been embroiled in an increas- California to build the Institute for
ingly public battle over election interference, fake news and con- Transformative Medicine, focused
cerns about user privacy, issues that spurred the company to dou- on the prevention and treatment
ble the size of its safety and security teams to 20,000 people. In of cancer. Ellison has donated over
April, Zuckerberg testified before Congress after revelations that $350 million to his foundation in the
consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for President past decade, mostly earmarked for
Donald Trump’s election campaign, improperly gathered data on at biomedical research to curb the ef-
least 87 million of Facebook’s 2.2 billion users. “I started Facebook, fects of aging. Since 2008, Ellison
I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here,” he said. The has been a key backer of Reach to
business has taken a hit: Facebook’s revenue growth has slowed, Teach, an education program in ru-
and monthly active visitors decreased in Europe. Zuckerberg’s for- ral areas of India, which works with
tune fell $10 billion in the past year as shares slipped 4% and his the government and NGOs to boost
philanthropic Chan Zuckerberg Initiative sold some shares. teachers’ skills.

128 | FORBES OCTOBER 31, 2018 WEALTH INHERITED VS. SELF-MADE CHANGE IN WEALTH KEY: S UP T DOWN SIGNATORY OF THE PHILANTHROPY RATING
! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) WX UNCHANGED Ì NEW TO LIST 3 RETURNEE GIVING PLEDGE