Bill Gates fails to find place in top three Forbes' Wealthiest for first time in 30 years

American business magnate and co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates has been knocked from the third to the fourth place on Forbes' list of the world's wealthiest people. For the first time since 1991, Gates is not among the top three on Forbes' 400 list of America's wealthiest people. While Gates' fortune increased by $23 billion from a year ago to an estimated $134 billion, it was not enough to catch Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, or Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, a Forbes report claimed. 

The report stated that while their companies' stock prices increased, Microsoft's stock price decreased owing to Gates' divorce from his wife Melinda Gates. The entire loss amounted to $5.7 billion. Meanwhile, Larry Page, co-founder and co-owner of Google, was ranked fifth with $123 billion and Sergei Brin, a native of Moscow, came in sixth place with $118.5 billion. 

Gates' stake in Microsoft was valued at $31 billion as of September 3, 2021. The remaining money was held in his investment firm, Cascade Investment, as well as other assets, the Forbes report claimed. Gates' fortune has changed dramatically since his debut appearance on The Forbes 400 in 1986, the year Microsoft went public. At the time, Gates was worth $315 million and owned 45% of Microsoft's stock. Notably, Microsoft's soaring stock price made him the world's youngest billionaire the following year, with a net worth of $1.25 billion at the age of 31.

Gates jumped to No. 2 on 'The Forbes 400' in 1991

In 1990, Microsoft's income surpassed $1 billion for the first time, making it the world's largest producer of computer software at that time. With a net worth of $4.8 billion, Gates jumped to No. 2 on 'The Forbes 400' in 1991, up from No. 16 the year before. He became America's richest person the following year, with a net worth of $6.3 billion. Gates' net worth declined for the first time after he stepped down as CEO in 2000, while he remained No. 1 on The Forbes 400, the report stated. 

It should be mentioned here that former US President and real estate magnate Donald Trump slid off the Forbes 400 list of America's wealthiest people for the first time in 25 years. Trump's net worth is the same as it was a year ago, but he has lost USD 600 million since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the report claimed. It further stated that Trump's net worth is estimated to be around USD 2.5 billion, leaving him USD 400 million short of making the Forbes list this year.

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