Bill Gates, once the wealthiest individual in the world, is dedicated to donating 99 percent of his vast fortune. However, this decision comes with one significant concern he fears might materialize.
The 69-year-old co-founder of Microsoft has three children with his former wife, Melinda French. She became a billionaire partly due to the divorce settlement after their 27-year marriage ended in 2021. According to Forbes, Melinda is currently valued at $30.3 billion, while Bill Gates is worth approximately $107 billion.
Unlike some celebrity offspring, Gates’ youngest daughter, Phoebe, is not indulged with her father’s immense wealth. Gates has disclosed that his children will not inherit his massive fortune or business empire after his passing.
In an interview on the Figuring Out With Raj Shamani podcast, Gates explained, “In my case, my kids got a great upbringing and education but less than one percent of the total wealth because I decided it wouldn’t be a favor to them. It’s not a dynasty, I’m not asking them to run Microsoft. I want to give them a chance to have their own earnings and success.”
At 22, Phoebe, a Stanford University graduate, recently started an e-commerce app named Phia, which she describes as similar to Google Flights but for fashion. The platform, launched on April 24, enables users to compare prices of clothes and accessories across numerous sites and provides options for browsing second-hand items.
Bill Gates, speaking about his daughter’s business to The New York Times, remarked, “Wow, a lot of people have tried, and there’s some big guys in there.”
He admitted he was initially worried that Phoebe might request financial help from him for her entrepreneurial venture.
“I thought, ‘Oh boy, she’s going to come and ask,'” Gates mentioned in the interview.
“And then I would have kept her on a short leash and be doing business reviews, which I would have found tricky, and I probably would have been overly nice but wondered if it was the right thing to do? Luckily, it never happened.”
Instead of relying on her parents, Phoebe and her college roommate and business partner secured the necessary funding through a $250,000 grant from Stanford University’s social entrepreneurship program and $100,000 from Soma Capital. They received the remaining $500,000 from angel investors. Phoebe disclosed that it was after a conversation with her mother that she decided to pursue the venture independently, without parental financial support.