Bill gates have been the highest title holder of the world's richest man in the last 2 decades. He held the title for a very long time until he was over taken by Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos was the richest man and held this post and every created a title of being the first Billionaire tot reach $200B not until Elon Musk took over the title of the world's richest man within the space of one year.
Although Gates has lost his title as the number 1 billionaire in the world, he still remains the world richest man to a lot of people and me especially. If we are looking at shares per company stocks market capitalization, Elon Musk would be regarded as the richest man in the world. If I were to rate based on influence, I could pick Jeff Bezos but if I am to pick based on innovation, Elon Musk is has been the most innovative in the last 5 years.
Bill Gates is the forth richest man in the world but still holds a title very strong, far beyond the title Elon or Bezos holds. Bill held about 45% of Microsoft shares when they went public but as at 2020, Bill owns only 1.36% of Microsoft. There is only one person who is in this same boat as bill gates, and that is Warren Buffet. Both Gates and Buffet have a diversified portfolio investing in several companies unlike the two richest men in the world who have their net worth tied to one company (Jeff to Amazon and Elon to Tesla).
Bill knew that computer was going to be the world's biggest technology creating other innovating tech in the future but he still quitted his Microsoft ambition and decided to spread his assets investing into other business like Coca-Cola, other businesses and started the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation which he has donated over $50B.