Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped revolutionize the computer industry by making software available to the average user. In doing so, he helped usher in the personal computer revolution, which has transformed the technology industry. Gates, who now serves as Microsoft’s chairman, helped build the company into one of the most successful firms in the tech industry, with a market capitalization of $287 billion. According to Bloomberg, Gates recently recaptured the title of the world’s richest person, with a net worth estimated at a whopping $72.7 billion.
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In 2000, Gates and his wife Melinda co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help reduce inequities in the United States and around the world. The Gates foundation supports philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, and has pioneered a number of technological breakthroughs designed to get vaccines to people in developing nations. Gates recently told CBS News that eradicating polio is among his top priorities, and the Gates Foundation is spending $1 billion to achieve that goal.