The story of the creation of "Microsoft" has been told countless times by one of its creators - Bill Gates. He was born in 1955 to a father who was a World War II veteran and a lawyer and a mother who was a civil activist, who was also on the boards of a number of banks and large companies. Bill created his first video game at the age of 13. His parents sent him to a private school in Seattle, where he met Paul Allen - later the two would create "Microsoft".
Now Bill Gates has released a new autobiography, entitled "Source Code: The Beginning". In it, he talks about his early life - how he considered himself an outsider, about his teenage rebellion and how he dropped out of the prestigious Harvard University to invest in an industry "that didn't even exist yet".
Just a marketing strategy?
The publisher describes the book as "wise, kind-hearted and interesting", but according to investigative journalist Tim Schwab it is just "another marketing strategy" of the rich and powerful man. He is the author of a book criticizing the founder of "Microsoft". In "The Problem Bill Gates: The Myth of the Well-Intentioned Billionaire" Schwab writes: "While other billionaires are unscrupulously selfish, Bill Gates has always presented himself as an altruist and philanthropist - the good billionaire". According to him, there is nothing "new" in Gates' new book that is not already known about him.
However, one excerpt from the book has already attracted attention. Gates describes himself as a "complex child" and says he was socially inadequate. "If I were growing up today, I would be diagnosed with autism," the billionaire writes. According to Schwab, however, even this detail "has not been given enough attention".
Access to world leaders
Thanks to "Microsoft" Gates became the richest person in the world in 1995. According to the "Forbes" He remained so until 2008, when he retired from the company and began working on his charitable foundation, the Gates Foundation. However, this does not mean that he should worry about his financial situation - he now ranks 13th in the ranking of the richest people in the world with a fortune of about $ 107 billion.
Gates enjoys a much better reputation than other technology tycoons. This has given him the opportunity to gain unprecedented access to the world's powerful, including meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and having dinner with US President Donald Trump. Gates has also boasted of talking to Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen.
The failure in Africa
Gates Foundation uses these contacts to invest large sums in the fight against disease and hunger in various parts of the world. However, Tim Schwab writes in his book that the results often fall short of the stated goals.
The foundation's work in Africa is particularly controversial, where Gates reportedly invested nearly a billion dollars in the AGRA program ("Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa"), launched in 2006. The goal was to double agricultural yields with the help of chemical fertilizers and hybrid seeds and to halve hunger and poverty in 13 African countries by 2020. This deadline was not met. According to a study published in June 2020, the number of hungry people in the target countries has even increased by 30%.
In August 2024, several African religious, agricultural and environmental organizations publicly demanded compensation from the "Gates" Foundation. In an open letter, they called on the organization to admit that its efforts "have failed." "This intervention pushes Africa's food system further into a corporate-organized model of industrial agriculture that diminishes local people's right to food sovereignty and threatens ecological and human health," the signatories said.
Gates paved the way for Musk
Tim Schwab reminds us that Gates is still "a private investor who has a vested interest in increasing his wealth." "When he talks to someone like Donald Trump or another elected leader, he also thinks about his private wealth, his private interests. "And then he has to think about the interests of his foundation, which is heavily subsidized by taxpayers," the journalist and author added.
Gates is closely connected to decision-makers through government contracts for companies in his empire and through donations to politicians - such as a $50 million donation to Trump's rival Kamala Harris.
"For years, Gates has normalized and legitimized the power of the extreme wealth in democracy, at least in American politics. Someone like Elon Musk could take it a step further and start a new development of this kind of oligarchy. But I think they are part of the same story," says Schwab, adding: "I believe Bill Gates is a precursor to people like Elon Musk.”
Author: Darko Yanevich