The foundation founded by Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda Gates manages their immense assets in a trust. These were the largest stock participations in the foundation depot in the first quarter of 2025.
Institutional investors whose managed assets exceeds the threshold of $ 100 million must disclose their investments quarterly to the US stock exchange supervisory authority Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is done using the so-called 13F form, which can also be viewed for the public after the submission.
The Gates Foundation, which deleted the first names of its founders in early 2025, managed around $ 41.81 billion in its trust in the first quarter of 2025. It is one of the largest private foundations in the world and qualifies clearly for submitting the 13F form at the Sec. The non-profit organization, that of Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates And his then Ms. Melinda was launched, is committed to the worldwide improvement in health care and access to education.
Melinda French Gates, however, withdrawn from her post as co-chair of the foundation on June 7, 2024. This was followed by the renaming of the foundation at the turn of the year.
In 2025, Bill Gates also announced that the Gates Foundation, founded 25 years ago, should close at the end of 2045. He wants to donate a total of $ 200 billion in the next 20 years. “This decision represents a significant acceleration of the work of the foundation and sets the year 2045 as a new date for the end of its work,” says a message.
In the first quarter of 2025, there was little to do in the foundation depot, and numerous participations remained unchanged. However, the Gates Foundation Trust had also reported a new investment in the past annual quarter: Shares of West Pharmaceutical Services were included in the portfolio for the first time. The foundation now holds 444,500 shares of the pharmaceutical company. As of the deadline with a total value of around $ 99.51 million, these only made up a very small share of 0.24 percent of the entire depot and therefore did not make it to the top ten.
Editor finance.net
11th place: the ranking
The foundation of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda appeared until the end of 2024 under the name Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The trust in which the foundation’s assets are managed had the same name by the end of December 2024. At the start of 2025, however, a renaming to Gates Foundation, or Gates Foundation Trust. Due to its investments with a total value of around $ 41.81 billion in the first quarter of 2025, the foundation is still obliged to report the US stock exchange supervisory authority SEC quarterly report on its participations. The ranking introduces the ten top positions, the shares are weighted as a percentage according to their share in the total depot of the trust. The data of the data is March 31, 2025.
Source: Sec.Gov, Image: Jameswmfoto / Shutterstock.com
10th place: Coca-Cola Femsa
The Gates Foundation of the Mexican Coca-Cola subsidiary Coca-Cola Femsa has had shares since the second quarter of 2005 and for almost 20 years. In the first quarter of 2025, nothing changed in the size of the participation, the foundation continued 6,214,719 shares of the bottler. The share certificates were worth around $ 567.34 million in the deadline and thus accounted for 1.36 percent of the overall portfolio. The participation in Coca-Cola Femsa is still in tenth place in the ranking.
Source: sec.gov, Image: Mahathir Mohd Yasin / Shutterstock.com
9th place: Fedex
Also untouched and continued in nine of the largest positions in the foundation depot in the past annual quarter the participation in the US parcel delivery company Fedex. In the portfolio of the Gates Foundation Trust, there were also 2,534,362 FedEx shares, which had a total value of around $ 617.83 million at the end of the first quarter of 2025 and thus made $ 1.48 percent of the depot.
Source: sec.gov, picture: ricochet64 / Shutterstock.com
8th place: Walmart
The participation in Walmart also remained unchanged. In the first quarter of the year there were still 9,090,477 shares of the US individual giant in the depot of the Gate Foundation Trust. With a stock market value of around $ 798.05 million at the end of March and a share of 1.91 percent in the total of trust, Walmart landed eighth again.
Source: sec.gov, picture: www.walmart.com
7th place: Ecolab
From the 5,218,044 shares of water hygiene specialists Ecolab, the foundation also kept their fingers in the reporting period. Overall, the participation was worth around $ 1.32 billion at the end of the quarter, which corresponded to 3.16 percent of the total value of all participations and means seventh place for Ecolab again in the ranking.
Source: sec.gov, picture: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com
6th place: Deere & Co.
Nothing changed in sixth place in the ranking in the first quarter of 2025. The manufacturer of agricultural equipment Deere & Co. is still represented with 3,557,378 shares in the Gates depot. At the end of the annual quarter, they came to a market value of around $ 1.67 billion, taking 3.99 percent of the total portfolio of the Gate Foundation Trust.
Source: sec.gov, Image: Jclobo / Shutterstock.com
5th place: Caterpillar
The mechanical engineer Caterpillar is in fifth place – as in the previous quarter. The total of 7,353,614 shares of the company remained untouched and were worth around $ 2.43 billion on March 31, 2025. This corresponded to a share of 5.80 percent at the Gate Foundation depot.
Source: Sec.Gov, Image: James Mattil / Shutterstock.com
4th place: Canadian National Railway
Also unchanged in fourth place is the participation in the railway company Canadian National Railway. The Gates Foundation also did not touch the 54,826,786 shares of the transport company in the past quarter. The participation was worth around $ 5.34 billion on the cut-off date and thus corresponded to $ 12.78 percent of the total depot.
Source: sec.gov, Image: Bunlee / Shutterstock.com
3rd place: Waste Management
The waste management company Waste Management also kept its third place in the ranking. Here, too, the Gates Foundation kept the feet still in the first quarter of 2025 and thus continued 32,234,344 shares of the disposal company on the cut-off date. At the end of the quarter, the market value of the shares was around $ 7.46 billion. That corresponded to 17.85 percent of the total deposit value.
Source: sec.gov, picture: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com
2nd place: Berkshire Hathaway B
The B shares of the investment company Berkshire Hathaway from Warren Buffett also remained stable in second place last year. However, the trust here separated from 2,482,589 shares in the reporting period – just like in the previous quarter. As of the cut-off date, there were only 17,172,435 shares of the Buffett-Holding in the depot, which were still worth around 9.15 billion US dollars and thus made up 21.88 percent of the total portfolio.
Source: sec.gov, picture: 360b / Shutterstock.com
1st place: Microsoft
Unhappy in first place in the depot of the Gate Foundation Trust is still the Windows developer Microsoft, whose foundation Bill Gates was significantly involved. The top position remained untouched in the first quarter of 2025, so that 28,457,247 shares of the IT giant were still included in the foundation depot. As of the cut-off date, these had a market value of around $ 10.68 billion and thus had a share of 25.55 percent of the total portfolio of the Gates Foundation Trust.
Source: sec.gov, Image: James M. Phelps, JR / Shutterstock.com
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