BILL GATES William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate , software developer, investor, author, and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft , along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen . [2] [3] During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman , chief executive officer (CEO), president and chief software architect , while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014. [4] He was a major entrepreneur of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Gates was born and raised in Seattle, Washington . In 1975, he and Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico . It became the world's largest personal computer software company. [5] [a] Gates led the company as chairman and CEO until stepping down as CEO in January 2000, succeeded by Steve Ballmer , but he remained chairman of the board of directors and became chief software architect. [8] During th