The billion-dollar Gates Foundation, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates, manages its assets in a trust. These developments occurred in the fourth quarter at the Gates Foundation Trust.
Institutional investors with assets under management of more than $100 million are required to disclose their holdings quarterly to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is done via the so-called 13F form, which is also publicly available after submission.
The Gates Foundation Trust also falls under this regulation. With assets under management of around $35.36 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025 (previous quarter: $36.58 billion), it is one of the largest private foundations in the world and is therefore required to file Form 13F with the SEC. The one from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates The foundation, founded by his then wife Melinda, aims to improve healthcare globally and expand educational opportunities.
In the fourth quarter, most of the top positions in the portfolio were left unchanged. Only two holdings were reduced, but they were reduced significantly: Microsoft shares were sold again, and with them papers from the company founded by Bill Gates. The following ranking presents the trust’s ten largest positions, weighted according to their percentage share of the total portfolio.
Editorial team finanzen.net
11th place: The ranking
Until the end of 2024, the foundation of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda operated under the name Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The associated trust in which the foundation’s assets are managed also had the same name until December 2024. At the beginning of 2025, however, the name was changed to Gates Foundation or Gates Foundation Trust. The trust appeared under the new name for the first time in the first quarter. Despite the name change, the reporting requirement remains: with investments totaling around $35.36 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, the foundation must continue to disclose its holdings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on a quarterly basis. The following overview shows the trust’s ten largest positions – weighted according to their percentage share of the total portfolio. The deadline is December 31, 2025.
Source: sec.gov, Image: JamesWMfoto / Shutterstock.com
10th place: Coca-Cola FEMSA
Shares in the Mexican Coca-Cola subsidiary Coca-Cola FEMSA have been held by the Gates Foundation for over 20 years. As in the previous quarter, there was no change in participation. With 6,214,719 securities worth around 588.596 million US dollars, the holding made up 1.66 percent of the total portfolio, meaning the Coca-Cola subsidiary defended 10th place in the ranking.
Source: sec.gov, Image: MAHATHIR MOHD YASIN / Shutterstock.com
9th place: FedEx
The Gates Trust position of the US parcel delivery company FedEx also remained untouched. The 2,384,362 shares had a value of approximately 688.747 million US dollars as of the reporting date and thus corresponded to a portfolio share of 1.95 percent.
Source: sec.gov, Image: ricochet64 / Shutterstock.com
8th place: Walmart
There are still 8,390,477 Walmart shares in the Gates Trust’s portfolio – no change from the previous quarter. With a market value of approximately $934.783 million, the US retail giant’s position corresponded to a portfolio share of 2.64 percent.
Source: sec.gov, Image: www.walmart.com
7th place: Ecolab
The Ecolab shares in the portfolio were not touched in the third quarter, so that there were still 5,218,044 shares in the foundation’s portfolio as of the reporting date. At the end of the quarter, the investment was worth around $1.37 billion, which represents a portfolio share of 3.87 percent and secures Ecolab 7th place.
Source: sec.gov, Image: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com
6th place: Deere & Co.
The manufacturer of agricultural equipment Deere & Co. is still in sixth place in the ranking. Here too, participation remained unaffected. The 3,557,378 shares in Gates’ portfolio had a market value of $1.66 billion at the end of the quarter, corresponding to a share of 4.68 percent.
Source: sec.gov, Image: JCLobo / Shutterstock.com
5th place: Caterpillar
The stake in the mechanical engineering company Caterpillar was also not changed. Here, the Gates Trust continues to hold 6,353,614 shares in the company. As of December 31, the position was worth around $3.64 billion and corresponded to a portfolio share of 10.29 percent.
Source: sec.gov, Image: James Mattil / Shutterstock.com
4th place: Microsoft
Windows developer Microsoft remains in fourth place in the Gates Foundation Trust portfolio. In the fourth quarter, however, 1.5 million papers were sold (-16.32 percent). However, the remaining 7,691,207 shares had a value of around 3.72 billion US dollars as of the reporting date and a portfolio share of 10.52 percent.
Source: sec.gov, Image: Volodymyr Kyrylyuk / Shutterstock.com
3rd place: Canadian National Railway
Gates’ shareholding in Canadian National Railway remained unchanged. The 51,826,786 papers worth $5.12 billion and a portfolio share of 14.49 percent remain in third place.
Source: sec.gov, Image: bunlee / Shutterstock.com
2nd place: Waste Management
The waste management company Waste Management is still in second place. The participation was not touched in the fourth quarter of the year. As of the reporting date, there were still 28,934,344 shares worth around $6.36 billion that were in the portfolio. This corresponds to 17.98 percent of the total portfolio value.
Source: sec.gov, Image: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com
1st place: Berkshire Hathaway B
After Berkshire Hathaway had thrown B shares out of its portfolio in the third quarter, Gates Trust sold many of the investment company’s securities again in the fourth quarter. Overall, the position was reduced by 2,358,460 shares (-10.84 percent) to a total of 19,406,764 shares. With a market value of around 9.75 billion US dollars and a portfolio share of 27.59 percent, the gold medal in the ranking can be defended.
Source: sec.gov, Image: 360b / Shutterstock.com
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