Blavatnik vs French Gates

Warner Music Group and Microsoft.

The differences

Forbes puts Len Blavatnik about $1.2B ahead of Melinda French Gates.Forbes figures from 9 Oct 2026 and 9 Oct 2026.
Len Blavatnik: founded it. Melinda French Gates: through marriage.
Len Blavatnik is about 7 years older than Melinda French Gates.
Melinda French Gates has signed the Giving Pledge; Len Blavatnik has not.

Put someone else on either side

Blavatnik

French Gates

Net worth, Forbes: $35.5BForbes, 9 Oct 2026; $34.3BForbes, 9 Oct 2026
Net worth, Bloomberg: $40.2BBloomberg, 21 Sep 2026; $17.4BBloomberg, 12 Oct 2026
Forbes rank: No. 66Real-Time list, 9 Oct 2026; No. 67Real-Time list, 9 Oct 2026
Billionaire since: Not stated; Not stated

How it started: Founded itFounded Access Industries in 1986; Forbes says his early fortune came from TNK-BP dividends and the $7 billion sale of his stake in 2013, and Access bought Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion in 2011; Through marriageBloomberg: her wealth mainly comes from assets transferred to her in May and August 2021 after her divorce from Bill Gates; Forbes estimates the settlement at $25 billion
Main source: Warner Music Group, held through Access IndustriesBloomberg names WMG as his biggest asset; Access also holds about one-fifth of LyondellBasell and a majority of DAZN; Assets transferred from Cascade Investment after her 2021 divorceForbes lists Microsoft as her source of wealth
Companies: Warner Music Group, Access IndustriesWarner Music Group: Director and vice chairman of the board; Access Industries: Founder; MicrosoftMicrosoft: None; former general manager of information products
Biggest stake: Warner Music Group72% owned; MicrosoftStake not stated

Born: 1957Odesa, Ukraine; 15 Aug 1964Dallas, Texas, United States
Country: United StatesLives in London, United Kingdom; United StatesLives in Seattle, Washington, United States
Education: Graduate degreeMS computer science, Columbia University (1981); MBA, Harvard Business School (1989); earlier studied at Moscow State University; Graduate degreeBS in computer science and economics (1986) and MBA (1987), Duke University
Parents: Son of two university professors; the family emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1978; Not stated

Giving Pledge: Not a signer; Signed in 2010Co-founded the Giving Pledge
Foundation: Blavatnik Family FoundationA self-funded 501(c)(3) private foundation; Pivotal Philanthropies FoundationPrivate foundation she formed in 2022 within Pivotal; she co-chaired the Gates Foundation from 2000 to 2024
Lifetime giving: $1.5BBlavatnik Family Foundation, 17 Oct 2026. 'More than $1.5 billion' contributed over the past decade, per the foundation's site; covers ten years, not his whole life; $52.6BForbes, 9 Feb 2026. Forbes' estimate of what Bill and Melinda Gates have given away together; Forbes publishes no figure for her alone

Role now: On the boardFounder of Access Industries; director and vice chairman of Warner Music Group; No roleHeads Pivotal, the organization she formed in 2015
Successor: Lincoln Benet has been CEO of Access Industries since 2006; his brother Alex Blavatnik is its chairman; Not stated
Public office: None found; None found
Legal record: 2016: US District Court for D.C. (DOJ case at the FTC's request); 2017: US Bankruptcy Court, S.D.N.Y.A consent final judgment in a Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger-notification case ordered him to pay a $656,000 civil penalty, without trial, adjudication or admission. In the Lyondell Chemical trustee's suit, the court cleared him of the fraud claims but found him liable on one of nine counts, a $7.2 million judgment related to a lending requirement, per the Financial Times.; None found