Billionaire Bill Gates’ latest portfolio updates showed few notable changes between the third and fourth quarters (Q3 & Q4) of 2025, other than a substantial reduction in the number of shares held.
Specifically, the latest Gates Foundation 13-f filing, presented on February 17, demonstrates that the organization has slowly been selling some of its biggest holdings and that the total value of its assets dropped by approximately $1 billion from about $36.6 billion to roughly $35.4 billion.
The reported sale of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK. B) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock shows that the reduction in value is not merely a result of regular market fluctuations, but part of a deliberate strategy.
Why Bill Gates sold Berkshire and Microsoft stock in Q4, 2025
Furthermore, the drop in BRK.B and MSFT shares owned by the Gates Foundation is aligned with an announcement the billionaire made in early May 2025.
Indeed, at the time, Bill Gates revealed he intends to diminish his own net worth drastically in the coming decades as part of the effort to complete his foundation’s mission and sunset the organization.
Therefore, the 11% drop in the number of Berkshire shares owned – Gates reported selling 2.36 million shares – and the 16% drop in the number of Microsoft shares – following a sale of 1.5 million during the quarter – appear to be part of the long-term sunsetting plan.
That being said, the overall portfolio balance has hardly changed between Q3 and Q4.
These are Bill Gates’ top 5 portfolio holdings
The 13-F filing covering the penultimate quarter of 2025 showed that Gates’ top five holdings were Berkshire Hathaway at 30%, Waste Management Inc (NYSE: WM) at 18%, the Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO) at 13% and, Microsoft at the same percentage, and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT) at 10%.
The remaining 18 holdings during Q3 all accounted for less than 10% of the total portfolio.
In Q4, the selling of BRK.B and MSFT altered little for Bill Gates’ holdings. Berkshire’s share fell slightly to 28% and Microsoft’s to 11%. This mildly altered the balance, raising CNR.TO to 15% but kept everything else effectively unchanged.
