Bill Gates lost his spot as the world's fourth-richest person after transferring more than $2.4 billion worth of stocks to his now ex-wife, Melinda French Gates. The fresh set of stock transfers increased Melinda's estimated net worth to around $5.6 billion.
According to Forbes' real-time billionaire ranking, Bill is now worth $129.6 billion, ranking him slightly below Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Bill now ranks fifth on the list of the world's richest people.
Filings with the SEC -- acquired and first reported by Bloomberg Monday -- showed that Bill's investment vehicle, Cascade Investment LLC, had transferred stocks to Melinda on Thursday. The transfer included 3.3 million shares of AutoNation, worth about $392 million, 2.8 million shares of Deere & Co. worth $1 billion, and 9.5 million shares of Canadian National Railway also worth around $1 billion.
Apart from the stock transfers, which are required to be disclosed with regulators, it is still unclear how much exactly Melinda has received from Bill. Public disclosure for transfers of assets such as stakes in private companies and real estate is not required. Stock transfers of less than 5% of a listed company also do not need to be disclosed.
Bill and Melinda legally split earlier in the month after a judge signed off on their divorce. In their original divorce petition, Melinda claimed their marriage was "irretrievably broken." Sources with knowledge in the matter said the two have been estranged even before they announced their plans to split back in May.
In 2020, Bill admitted that he had an affair with a former Microsoft employee. Microsoft only investigated the incident in 2019. Bill later stepped down from Microsoft's board in March last year. A spokesperson for Bill denied that the decision to step down was related to Microsoft's investigation into his previous affair.
Despite their divorce, both Bill and Melinda have agreed to continue to work together at their foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They established the foundation in 2000 and it has since become the world's largest charitable organization with an endowment estimated to be worth around $50 billion. Melinda will, reportedly, step down from her position with the foundation after two years if the two of them are not able to work together effectively.
