When it comes to billionaire investors, Bill Gates is pretty much a household name. He made his fortune as the CEO of (NASDAQ: MSFT), the software company he co-founded. Gates is worth an estimated $127.7 billion (as of this writing), according to Forbes, making him the world's eighth richest person world.

After running Microsoft for 25 years, Gates turned his attention to philanthropic ventures. He joined Warren Buffett in signing The Giving Pledge, agreeing to donate "virtually all" of his wealth to charitable causes. To support these goals, he established the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation Trust "to create a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life." The foundation has disbursed $53.8 billion over the past 24 years, "taking on the toughest, most important problems."

As a result of the regular inflows of Gates's wealth, dividend payments, and outflows to charitable ventures, the trust's stock holdings and the amounts change regularly. While the portfolio has stakes in two dozen companies in all, the vast majority is held in just four stocks.

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Source Fool.com