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| Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft board | Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft board |
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| Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is stepping down from the company's board to spend more time on philanthropic activities. | |
| He says he wants to focus on global health and development, education and tackling climate change. | |
| One of the world's richest men, Mr Gates, 65, has also left the board of Warren Buffett's massive holding company, Berkshire Hathaway. | |
| Mr Gates stepped down from his day-to-day role running Microsoft in 2008. | |
| Announcing his latest move, Mr Gates said the company would "always be an important part of my life's work" and he would continue to be engaged with its leadership. | |
| But he said: "I am looking forward to this next phase as an opportunity to maintain the friendships and partnerships that have meant the most to me, continue to contribute to two companies of which I am incredibly proud, and effectively prioritise my commitment to addressing some of the world's toughest challenges." | |
| Mr Gates, listed by Forbes as the world's second richest man, made his fortune through developing software for the personal computer. | |
| As a young man, he dropped out of college and moved to Albuquerque, in New Mexico, where he set up Microsoft with his childhood friend, Paul Allen, who died in 2018. | |
| Their big break came in 1980 when Microsoft signed an agreement with IBM to build the operating system that became known as MS-DOS. | |
| Microsoft went public in 1986 and within a year Bill Gates, at 31, had become the youngest self-made billionaire. |