For several decades now, the name Bill Gates has been synonymous with phenomenal wealth.
This week the 65-year-old Microsoft founder and his 56-year-old spouse Melinda announced in a statement on Twitter that they will be separating from one another after 27 years of marriage.
As a result of this, Gates' gigantic estate has fallen under public scrutiny once again, with financial experts speculating as to how the divorce will affect his net worth.
However, after a certain point, when millions turn to billions, and billions into hundreds of billions, it's hard to wrap your head around exactly what those numbers mean.
So to put things into better perspective, we've compiled eight facts about Bill Gates that prove just how rich he really is. Are you ready? Prepare to feel poor.
1. He's only getting richer:According to an analysis of Gates' net worth made by Business Insider, Gates has managed to become $41 billion richer in the past year alone, jumping from $105 billion to $146 billion as of the end of 2020.
This means that - based on the money he earned over the course of the last year - Gates acquires the princely sum of approximately $4,630 every second, or $277,800 every minute.
3. He's unlikely to spend most of it:As if that wasn't mindboggling enough, Business Insider went on to calculate that even if Gates were to spend a million dollars every day, it would still take him more than 400 years to deplete his humungous fortune.
The British monarchy receives its finances from a large number of sources, but even then, Gates' personal wealth dwarfs that of the entire institution. Indeed, as of 2021, Forbes estimated the entire wealth of the Royal Family was a mere $28 billion dollars.
Data provided by the World Bank shows that Gates' net worth is higher than the combined GDP of a number of nations.
Indeed, Gates just so happens to make more money in a year than Luxembourg ($71 billion) Estonia ($31.4 billion) and Bolivia ($40.8 billion) combined.
Business Insider has also calculated that, based on Gates' most recent earnings, he could easily give every single living person on the planet $15, and still have enough change left over to be worth $28 billion.
7. He has an amazingly cool house:Nicknamed "Xanadu 2.0" in a homage to Charles Foster Kane's house in the movie Citizen Kane, Gates' mansion is located in Medina, Washington.
It took him seven years and $63 million to build and boasts a variety of space-age features, such as a 60-foot pool with an underwater music system, a trampoline room, and 24 bathrooms.
Despite his phenomenal personal capital, the most amazing thing about Bill Gates is the fact that he's given most of his money away.
According to USA Today, Gates has given away $45.5 billion to charitable causes since 1994, and BBC News reports that in 2019, he and Melinda pledged to eventually part with 95% of Gates' overall wealth.
9. He's richer than other billionaires:Forbes has estimated that Gates is the fourth-richest man in the world as of 2021 - lagging behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
However, he's still easily outpaced other millionaires, with data from Bloomberg showing that he's streets ahead of Indian's richest businessman Mukesh Ambani (worth $74.7 billion) and Zhong Shanshan, the richest person in Asia (worth $66.3 billion).
It's hardly a surprise, but it seems as though Bill Gates doesn't buy his own groceries.
In a 2018 appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Gates struggled to name the price of a number of common household goods, guessing that a bag of frozen pizza rolls might be worth $22 and that a pack of Tide Pods would only cost $10.
So there you have it. Hopefully, you can now appreciate just how much the man himself is really worth, and what an incredible influence he has had upon design, computing, and technology.
