In this piece, we will take a look at the August updates of Bill Gates' stock portfolio. If you want to skip out an introduction to the well known technology billionaire, then head on over to Bill Gates Stock Portfolio Latest 2023 Update: Top 5 Stocks.
Bill Gates really needs no introduction. His company, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the biggest technology companies in the world and one that sits at the heart of the computing revolution that has taken the planet by storm.
Mr. Gates' story is one of a typical Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He attended the illustrious Harvard University for his undergraduate education, but sensing an opportunity in the computing market, dropped out and set up Microsoft in 1976. During the first decade of its existence, Microsoft would compete with Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) to take the personal computing crown and these years would signify the different approaches to a product that Gates and his rival Steve Jobs would take. While Jobs would stress the need to control the entire user experience through his product and pair the Macintosh operating system with the Mac computer, Gates would instead focus on developing software that could be used on any computer. As history shows, Gates won this war, and Microsoft is currently the world's largest computer operating system company. Apple, however, came back with the smartphone as it became the first company to capture a large market with the iPhone.
After working at Microsoft for nearly four decades, Gates left the firm in 2014. However, due to his stature in the industry and his active approach towards charity, he is still a regular feature of news pieces despite nearly ten years having passed since his retirement. The Microsoft billionaire, who is worth $116 billion as of August 2023, donates to charitable causes and invests primarily through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Apart from the foundation, he also invests through his family office called Cascade Investment. If you're interested in his family office's investments, then check out Bill Gates’ Most Recent Portfolio: Top 15 Stock Picks.
Mr. Gates' foundation is also one of the biggest charities in the world, and estimates suggest that through it, he has donated more than $50 billion to a variety of charitable causes over the past two decades. His friendship with another well-known charitable billionaire, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, is also well known and so is Mr. Buffett's influence on Mr. Gates' investment philosophy. As opposed to Gates, who is a technology billionaire, Mr. Buffett is an old school investor who finds value in a variety of sectors such as energy and finance. These choices often hedge investment losses in a market downturn in growth stocks such as the one we witnessed last year, and Mr. Buffett has also influenced the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's investments by quite a bit. Like his friend, Mr. Gates has also pledged to give away nearly all of his wealth once he passes away.
These days the billionaire is busy being a celebrity and focusing on his interests. In August, he interviewed Khan Academy's founder Sal Khan as part of his Unconfuse Me podcast where the pair discussed a variety of topics. For those out of the loop, Khan Academy is the world's premier online education platform that is made of countless free courses to make sure that children all over the world can access education for free. During the talk, Gates shared his experience around ChatGPT's early days and how OpenAI stunned him when it demonstrated its software to him. The Microsoft founder linked the demo to the time he was at Xerox PARC in the 1970s, which is a big claim if you're in the loop about computing history. If you're not, then consider the fact that the graphical user interface (GUI) developed by Xerox PARC is the precursor to the modern computing operating systems that we use today. It had a simple point and click interface, which had left both Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs stunned when they first saw it - an understandable reaction considering how the software would become the backbone of the computer.
Therefore, comparing the OpenAI demo with the Xerox demo is no short claim and it underscores the impact that Mr. Gates believes that OpenAI might have on the world. During his talk with Sal Khan, Mr. Gates recalled the two demonstrations and shared:
In June, they kept showing me this thing, and I was like, "Yeah, it’s kind of an idiot savant. I don’t think it’s practical. Why don’t you see if it can do the AP Biology exam. And I’m not going to pay any attention until you can get a 5." And I thought, "Okay, that’ll give me three years to work on HIV and malaria." And then it was so bizarre because Sam Altman and Greg Brockman in late August said, "Hey, we want to come show you this thing." It was early September when there were like thirty people at my house. And I’ve said it’s the most stunning demo I’ve ever seen in my life. I mean, right up there with seeing the Xerox PARC graphics user interface that set the agenda for Microsoft for about fifteen years. This demo was so surprising to me, the emergent depth that as they scaled up the training set, its fluency, and you have to say understanding, that computers could not read in the sense humans do, and it couldn’t write in the sense humans do. And now, with lots of footnotes about hallucination and things like that, but I’m still personally in a state of shock at wow, it is so good, and okay, therefore, let’s see where we can put it to good use.
So, with these details in mind, let's take a look at the August update for Bill Gates' stock portfolio. The top three Bill Gates stock picks are Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI).
Bill Gates Stock Portfolio: August 2023 Update
Our Methodology
To compile our list of stocks for the August update to Bill Gates' stock portfolio, we used the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Q2 2023 SEC filings and picked top ten stocks from the portfolio. While not included in this list, the fund bought a new stake worth $96 million in Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (NYSE:BUD) during the time period covered.
Bill Gates Stock Portfolio: August 2023 Update: Top 10 Stocks
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Q2 2023 Stake: $380 million
FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) is a courier and logistics services provider. The firm's stock has performed remarkably well on the stock market this year since it is up by nearly 50% year to date. Mr. Gates' foundation owned a $380 million stake in the company as of June 2023, making it the largest hedge fund investor.
During the same time period, 62 of the 910 hedge funds polled by Insider Monkey had bought FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX)'s shares. Out of these, the firm's second largest shareholder is Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group with a $333 million stake.
Along with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A), and Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI), FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) is part of Bill Gates' August stock portfolio update.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Q2 2023 Stake: $474 million
Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is the biggest brick and mortar retailer in the world. Its highly anticipated second quarter earnings were a positive bunch of figures, as the firm beat analyst EPS estimates and also increased its full year revenue growth guidance to a high end of 4.5%.
During Q2 2023, 81 of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's database had held a stake in the retailer. Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)'s largest hedge fund investor is Ken Fisher's Fisher Asset Management since it owns 8.8 million shares that are worth $1.3 billion.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Q2 2023 Stake: $517 million
Coca-Cola FEMSA, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:KOF) is the Mexican franchise of Coca-Cola. It produces and sells a variety of Coca-Cola's products. The firm's second quarter earnings saw it report $1.32 in earnings per share, which was seven cents higher than the analyst estimates.
By the end of this year's second quarter, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had held a hefty $517 million stake in Coca-Cola FEMSA, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:KOF), making it the largest hedge fund shareholder. Along with the firm, ten of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's research had also invested in the company.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Q2 2023 Stake: $974 million
Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) is an industrial water treatment and pest control products and services provider. Despite a general lag in the industrial sector, it reported an 8% sales growth and 21% operating income growth over the year during its second quarter.
After digging through 910 hedge fund portfolios for their June quarter of 2023 shareholdings, Insider Monkey discovered that 56 had invested in the company. Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)'s biggest investor in our database is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust with a stake worth $974 million.
6. Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Q2 2023 Stake: $1.5 billion
Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) is another industrial company that sells tractors, crawlers, and other machines.
Mr. Gates' foundation is Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)'s biggest shareholder since it owns 3.9 million shares that are worth $1.5 billion. As a whole, 56 of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's Q2 2023 database had invested in the company.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A), Deere & Company (NYSE:DE), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE:CNI) are some stocks that the Bill Gates Foundation invested in during 2023's second quarter.
