Gates vs Zhao
Microsoft and Binance.
The differences
- Forbes puts Bill Gates about $3.3B ahead of Changpeng Zhao.Forbes figures from 15 Oct 2026 and 30 Sep 2026.
- Both started the company their money comes from.
- Bill Gates is about 22 years older than Changpeng Zhao.
- Bill Gates has signed the Giving Pledge; Changpeng Zhao has not.
- Bill Gates is from United States; Changpeng Zhao is from Canada.
Put someone else on either side
Side by side
Gates
ZhaoThe money
- Net worth, Forbes
- $118BForbes, 15 Oct 2026
- $115BForbes, 30 Sep 2026
- Net worth, Bloomberg
- $119BBloomberg, 16 Oct 2026
- $82.1BBloomberg, 9 Oct 2026
- Forbes rank
- No. 17Real-Time list, 15 Oct 2026
- No. 16Real-Time list, 30 Sep 2026
- Billionaire since
- 1987Forbes first listed him as a billionaire in 1987
- Not stated
Where it came from
- How it started
- Co-founded itCo-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975
- Co-founded itBinance lists him as co-founder and says he launched Binance in July 2017; Forbes labels him self-made
- Main source
- Cascade Investment, built from Microsoft stock sales and dividendsBloomberg: 'The majority of Bill Gates' fortune is derived from Cascade Investment'
- Binance, a cryptocurrency exchangeForbes: source of wealth 'Cryptocurrency exchange'
- Companies
- MicrosoftMicrosoft: Co-founder; technology advisor to the CEO
- BinanceBinance: Co-founder and former CEO
- Biggest stake
- Microsoft1% owned
- Binance100% owned
The person
- Born
- 28 Oct 1955Seattle, Washington, United States
- 1977Jiangsu, China
- Country
- United StatesLives in Medina, Washington, United States
- CanadaLives in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Education
- Left university without a degreeHarvard University, left without a degree (honorary degree in 2007)
- Bachelor's degreeComputer science degree, McGill University, Montreal
- Parents
- Father William H. Gates Sr. was an attorney and civic leader; mother Mary Gates was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent and chair of United Way International
- Mother a teacher, father an academic who took a job at the University of British Columbia; the family moved to Canada in the late 1980sBloomberg profile; Forbes adds that his father, a professor, was temporarily exiled shortly after Zhao was born
What they give
- Giving Pledge
- Signed in 2010Co-founded the Giving Pledge in 2010 with Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett
- Not a signer
- Foundation
- Gates FoundationFormerly the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; renamed in 2025. He is trustee of the Gates Foundation Trust
- Giggle AcademyA free online education platform for children that he founded; described as a platform, not a foundation
- Lifetime giving
- $63.9BGates Foundation, 31 Dec 2025. Joint total given by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates to the foundation from inception through 2025; no Gates-only figure is published
- Not stated
Role and record
- Role now
- Founder, no executive roleChair of the Gates Foundation; technology advisor to Microsoft's CEO
- Founder, no executive roleCo-founder and former CEO of Binance
- Successor
- Steve Ballmer succeeded him as Microsoft CEO in 2000; Satya Nadella is now chairman and CEONo Gates family member is named in a Microsoft executive role in the cited sources
- Richard Teng succeeded him as Binance CEO in November 2023; co-founder Yi He became co-CEO alongside Teng in December 2025
- Public office
- None found
- Strategic Advisor to the Pakistan Crypto Council2025
- Legal record
- 2004: US District Court for D.C. (DOJ case at the FTC's request)A consent final judgment in a case over a Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notification violation ordered him to pay $800,000 in civil penalties, without trial or adjudication of facts or law.
- 2023: US DOJ; 2023: US CFTC (court order)Pleaded guilty on November 21, 2023 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by causing Binance to fail to implement an effective anti-money-laundering program; Binance separately pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $4.3 billion. A federal court in Seattle sentenced him in 2024 to four months in prison, and Forbes reports he paid a $50 million fine. He received a full and unconditional presidential pardon on October 21, 2025. The US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved the CFTC's settlement with Binance and Zhao and entered a consent order requiring Zhao to pay a $150 million civil monetary penalty.
