Bill Gates could reach ‘trillionaire’ status by 2042

As the world’s richest man, Bill Gates exponentially grows his net worth each passing day, and according to a recent study, he’ll most likely become the first ever trillionaire in the next 25 years.

As pointed out in an Oxfam International report entitled “An Economy for the 99%”, the Microsoft founder’s wealth has grown at a staggering 11 percent clip per year since 2009, and has shown no signs of slowing down.

With his net worth at $78.7 billion, as modestly estimated by Forbes as of August 2016, the 61-year-old tech wizard is projected to reach the unimaginable trillionaire status by the time he is 86 years old.

By the time he left Microsoft in 2006, Gates’ net worth was at $50 billion and has grown at an astonishing rate over the last decade.

His meteoric rise money-wise comes  “despite his commendable attempts to give it away through his Foundation,” the report said.

In addition to the charitable work he does through his personal foundation, the tech innovator has also devoted his time and resources to eradicating infectious diseases and improving education around the world.

A recent estimate says he has donated over $28 billion through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In addition, Gates is a founding member of The Giving Pledge, a group composed of some of the richest individuals in the world who pledge to give away more than half of their worth.

What’s even more absurd is the fact that since no one has reached such status yet, the word ‘trillionaire’ is not even recognized in the dictionary as an official word.

“In such an environment, if you are already rich, you have to try hard not to keep getting a lot richer,” Oxfam noted in a Business Insider report.

“The super-rich can achieve returns that are not available to the ordinary saver, helping the gap to grow between the wealthy and everyone else,” the report stated. “The bigger the initial investment, the higher returns one can make as the initial costs of sophisticated advice and high-risk investments can be justified with the potential for super-lucrative returns.”

In a separate report last week, Oxfam revealed names of eight billionaires—including Gates—who have more money than the poorest half of the world’s population.

The list includes business magnate Warren Buffett, Inditex founder Amancio Ortega, Mexican investor Carlos Slim, Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Oracle’s Larry Ellison. Khristian Ibarrola

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

8 men own half the world’s wealth — Oxfam

LONDON, United Kingdom — Eight men own the same wealth as half the world’s population, a level of inequality which “threatens to pull our societies apart”, Oxfam said on Monday ahead of the World Economic Forum opening in Davos.

The wealth of the world’s poorest 3.6 billion people is the equivalent to the combined net worth of six American businessmen, one from Spain and another from Mexico.

Picked from Forbes’ billionaires list, they include Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg who co-founded Facebook, and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.


Oxfam pointed to a link between the vast gap between rich and poor and growing discontent with mainstream politics around the world.

“From Brexit to the success of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, a worrying rise in racism and the widespread disillusionment with mainstream politics, there are increasing signs that more and more people in rich countries are no longer willing to tolerate the status quo,” Oxfam said in its new report, “An economy for the 99 percent”.

The charity said new data on wealth distribution from countries such as India and China had prompted it to revise its own calculation, having said a year ago the wealth of half the world’s population was in the hands of 62 people.

Inequality will be among the issues topping the agenda as the world’s political and business elite meet in Davos from Tuesday until Friday, when 3,000 people will gather for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

“Responsive and responsible leadership” has been chosen as the theme of the summit, which organisers said was a response to a “backlash against globalization leading to two surprising vote results and a rise in populism in the West”.

In its report Oxfam called for an increase in tax rates targeting “rich individuals and cooperations”, as well as a global agreement to end competition between countries to lower corporate tax rates.

The charity also decried lobbying by corporations and the closeness of business and politics, calling for mandatory public lobby registries and stronger rules on conflicts of interest. CBB

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Make tech accessible to all, Bill Gates tells employees on eve of Microsoft’s 40th anniversary

Make the power of technology accessible to everyone. This was Microsoft co-founder William "Bill" Gates III's message to the software giant's employees ahead of the company's 40th anniversary on Saturday, April 4.

"We have accomplished a lot together during our first 40 years and empowered countless businesses and people to realize their full potential. But what matters most now is what we do next. Thank you for helping make Microsoft a fantastic company now and for decades to come," he said in his email.





Microsoft, which started in April 1975, is best known for its Windows operating system, which powers most of the world's personal computers.

The company also produces the popular Office productivity suite.

While Microsoft is not quite as dominant in mobile operating system arena, it is working on unifying mobile and desktop devices with its upcoming OS Windows 10.

"In the coming years, Microsoft has the opportunity to reach even more people and organizations around the world. Technology is still out of reach for many people, because it is complex or expensive, or they simply do not have access. So I hope you will think about what you can do to make the power of technology accessible to everyone, to connect people to each other, and make personal computing available everywhere even as the very notion of what a PC delivers makes its way into all devices," he added.

Gates, who stepped down as Microsoft chairman in 2014, is now technology adviser for new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

In his email, he said he and co-founder Paul Allen had set a goal of "a computer on every desk and in every home" – a bold idea not shared by many at the time.

Yet, he said computing has come so far, "and we can all be proud of the role Microsoft played in that revolution."

But now, he said Microsoft can still play a big role in a future where "computing will evolve faster in the next 10 years than it ever has before."

"We already live in a multi-platform world, and computing will become even more pervasive. We are nearing the point where computers and robots will be able to see, move, and interact naturally, unlocking many new applications and empowering people even more," he said.

Gates said that under Nadella, Microsoft is better positioned than ever to lead these advances.

"We have the resources to drive and solve tough problems. We are engaged in every facet of modern computing and have the deepest commitment to research in the industry," he said.

Gates said he is impressed by the vision and talent he sees, particularly in products like personal assistant Cortana, Skype Translator, and HoloLens. — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Microsoft releases data on government requests

WASHINGTON  - Microsoft said Thursday it received 75,378 law enforcement requests for data in 2012 in the tech giant's first report on the sensitive subject.

The requests, which included those for the Skype messaging and voice service, potentially impacted 137,424 accounts, Microsoft said on its corporate citizenship Web page.

The disclosure is similar to a "transparency report" which Google started in 2010.

Microsoft said that "customer content" was released in just 2.1 percent of cases, representing 1,558 requests.

But "non content" information, which can include subscriber information such as the e-mail address, name, location and IP address was released in 79.8 percent of requests to the company, excluding Skype.

The company said Skype, which Microsoft acquired in 2011, did not provide any "content" in response to the 4,713 requests but did provide a Skype ID and other identifiers in more than 500 cases.

"In recent months, there has been broadening public interest in how often law enforcement agencies request customer data from technology companies and how our industry responds to these requests," Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said.

"Google, Twitter and others have made important and helpful contributions to this discussion by publishing some of their data. We've benefited from the opportunity to learn from them and their experience, and we seek to build further on the industry's commitment to transparency by releasing our own data today."

Smith said the data suggests "that less than 0.02 percent of active users were affected" by data requests.

"Microsoft is committed to respecting human rights, free expression, and individual privacy," he said, but added that "like every company, we are obligated to comply with legally binding requests from law enforcement."

Smith said two-thirds of the requests to Microsoft excluding Skype which resulted in any disclosure came from five countries -- the United States, Britain, Turkey, Germany and France.

For Skype, the top five countries accounted for 81 percent of all requests -- The US, Britain, Germany, France and Taiwan.  — Agence France Presse

source: gmanetwork.com