Key Takeaways
- Gates Foundation sold 17 million Microsoft shares, a 65% reduction in its stake
- Portfolio value dropped from $47.78B to $36.58B in Q3 2025
- No new purchases were made during the quarter
- Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, and Canadian National Railway are now top holdings
The Gates Foundation Trust executed one of its most dramatic portfolio shifts in recent history during Q3 2025, selling off massive stakes including a 65% reduction in Microsoft shares. The foundation’s latest 13F filing revealed a strategic move that reduced its total portfolio value from $47.78 billion to $36.58 billion through pure divestment.
The trust made no new purchases and did not increase any existing positions, focusing entirely on selling. This reduced the number of unique holdings from 25 to 23 as part of a major portfolio cleanup.
Major Microsoft Divestment
The most significant action was the sale of 17 million Microsoft shares, cutting the holding from over 26.19 million shares to just 9.19 million. This massive reduction generated $8.267 billion in liquidity.
Analysts view this divestment as a strategic effort to rebalance the highly concentrated portfolio and generate funds for the foundation’s increasing philanthropic commitments. The move aligns with the trust’s long-standing goal of avoiding single-stock concentration while funding plans to significantly increase annual charitable spending.
Portfolio Restructuring
Beyond the Microsoft reduction, the foundation trimmed several other top-tier investments. The substantial rebalancing changed the trust’s major holdings hierarchy, with Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, and Canadian National Railway emerging as the new top three positions.
The value of the remaining Canadian National Railway stake is now marginally higher than the reduced Microsoft position, indicating a fundamental shift in the portfolio’s composition.
Gates’s UN Pivot Call
Separately, Bill Gates recently called for the United Nations to make a “major strategic pivot” from climate goals toward funding vaccines and poverty alleviation. The Microsoft founder defended prioritizing nearer-term health crises in poor countries over long-term temperature rise concerns.
This pragmatic stance follows dramatic aid cuts by wealthy countries, led by America, suggesting potential alignment between the foundation’s financial strategy and its evolving philanthropic priorities.
