Bill Gates and the image of a 'good billionaire'

The origin story of Microsoft and its founder, Bill Gates, has been told countless times in the media since the tech mogul first appeared in the public eye in the 1980s.

Born in 1955 to a wealthy family — his father was a corporate lawyer and World War II veteran, his mother a successful civic activist who served on the boards of banks and major corporations — Bill Gates programmed his first video game at the age of 13. He was sent to an exclusive prep school in Seattle, where he befriended future Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. He later enrolled in Harvard, but dropped out to start "Micro-Soft" with Allen in 1975.

Gates is now revisiting the story of his early years in his memoir, "Source Code: My Beginnings," which comes out on February 4. Ahead of its publication, Gates shared that in the book he discusses, among other topics, "feeling like a misfit as a kid" and "butting heads with my parents as a rebellious teen," as well as "the challenges of dropping out of school to make a bet on an industry that didn't really exist yet."

Two other books, which will deal with his years as the Microsoft CEO and his later philanthropic work as the head of the Gates Foundation, will follow.

Just another marketing exercise?

The work is described by the memoir's publisher as a "warm and inspiring book," but US investigative reporter Tim Schwab has dismissed it as yet another "marketing and branding exercise" by the rich and powerful. 

Schwab is the author of a critical book about the Microsoft founder, called "The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire," published in 2023.

"Whereas other billionaires are blatantly self-interested, Bill Gates has always tried to present himself as a selfless humanitarian and a so-called good billionaire," Schwab told DW.

"There is very little we don't already know about Bill Gates' personal story, and there is almost nothing in the book that is new or revelatory," he said.

One aspect, however, made recent headlines. Gates reflects in his memoir that he probably would have been diagnosed on the autism spectrum if he were growing up today. 

"He devotes like half a page at the very end of the book" to the topic, said Schwab. But even this one new detail has not been presented in "a particularly thoughtful or reflective way," according to the reporter.

'I talk to world leaders a lot'

Thanks to Microsoft, Gates became the world's richest man in 1995 and stayed in the top spot of Forbes magazine's estimates until 2008, when he stepped back from the company to focus on philanthropy.

Other tech billionaires like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg have since surpassed him in the Forbes rankings. However, Gates' net worth has only grown since 2008, even when accounting for inflation. Now, at 69 years old, he is worth some $107 billion (€102.5 billion) and is currently ranked 13th richest person alive.

At the same time, Gates enjoys a much better public image than his fellow tech tycoons. This combination of wealth, connections and positive reputation has granted Gates near-unprecedented access to decision-makers around the world, including a 2023 meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping or a recent three-hour dinner with returning US President Donald Trump. During the dinner, according to Gates, he talked to Trump about possible cures for HIV and polio.

"We both got, I think, pretty excited about that," he told The Wall Street Journal.

"Because of how engaged the foundation is in these global health issues, I talk to world leaders a lot. In the last month, I talked to [French] President Macron, [EU Commission head] Ursula von der Leyen," Gates added.

Food revolution in Africa backfiring

The Gates Foundation has used these contacts to funnel massive funds into fighting disease and hunger in various parts of the world. However, Schwab's book makes the argument that its results tend to fall short of its widely-publicized goals.

A particularly contentious point is the foundation's work in Africa, where Gates's organization has reportedly poured nearly a billion dollars into the controversial AGRA program (formerly the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa). The program launched in 2006 promising to double agricultural yields and halve both hunger and poverty in 13 African countries by 2020.

This deadline has not been met. According to research published in June 2020, the number of hungry people has in fact grown by 30% in the focus nations.

In August 2024, several African faith-based, farming and environmental organizations publicly demanded reparations from the Gates Foundation. In an open letter, they urged the foundation and its allies to acknowledge that their efforts "have failed." 

"Their interventions are further pushing Africa's food system towards a corporatized model of industrial agriculture, diminishing our people's right to food sovereignty and threatening ecological and human health," the letter's signatories said.

The African leaders accused AGRA's organizers of promoting "costly synthetic inputs" (fertilizers and seeds) that pollute and harden the soil, destabilize local ecosystems, and place "smallholder farmers at the mercy of volatile global prices to maintain their yields."

But with the Gates Foundation also funding researchers and advocacy groups, as well as working closely with decision-makers in Africa, any critics face an uphill battle.

Clearing the way for Musk

Schwab warned that Gates is still a "private investor who is deeply interested in expanding his wealth."

"When he is talking to somebody like Donald Trump or any other elected leaders, he has to be thinking about his own private wealth, his own private interest. And then he also has to be thinking about the interest of the Gates Foundation, which is heavily subsidized by taxpayers," added the author.

"If you look at the Gates Foundation, one of the projects that Bill Gates says he is the most proud of is a vaccine procurement mechanism based in Switzerland — most of the money for that project comes from taxpayers."

At the same time, Gates is connected to decision-makers through government contracts for business linked to his empire, and through political contribution, such as the reported $50 million donation to Trump's 2024 presidential rival, Kamala Harris.

"For years, Gates has normalized and legitimized the role of extreme wealth in democracy, certainly in American politics, and yes, someone like Elon Musk might represent a new step, a new evolution in that brand of oligarchy, but I think they are part of the same story," said Schwab.

"I think that men today like Elon Musk are standing on the shoulders of Bill Gates."

Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier