Bill Gates is an American business magnate, software developer, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest personal-computer software company, and one of the pioneers of the personal computer revolution. Gates was born in Seattle, Washington in 1955, and showed an early aptitude for computers. In 1973, he enrolled at Harvard College, where he met his future business partner, Paul Allen. Gates and Allen developed an early version of the programming language BASIC for the Altair 8800, which would become the foundation for the Microsoft Corporation.

In 1975, Gates and Allen officially established Microsoft and began developing software for personal computers. The company's first big success came in 1980 with the release of the Microsoft Disk Operating System, or MS-DOS, which became the standard operating system for IBM-compatible PCs. This was followed by the development of the popular Windows operating system, which would go on to become the most widely-used operating system in the world.

Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft experienced rapid growth and became one of the world's largest and most profitable companies. Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2000 but remained as chairman and chief software architect. In 2006, he transitioned out of a day-to-day role in the company to focus on philanthropy through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is also involved in various other business ventures, including investing in renewable energy and biotechnology.

Gates has been widely recognized for his business acumen and philanthropy. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and is considered one of the most influential people in the world.