Microsoft (MSFT) Stock: Gates Foundation Sells Last of Its $3.2B Stake – Here’s Why

TLDR

• The Gates Foundation Trust sold its remaining 7.7 million Microsoft shares in Q1 2026, worth roughly $3.2 billion.
• A year ago, the Trust held 28.5 million MSFT shares worth $10.7 billion — a 26% slice of the fund.
• The sale is tied to the Foundation’s wind-down plan and the need for liquidity to fund charitable grants.
• Bill Gates personally still holds 103 million Microsoft shares worth around $43 billion.
• MSFT stock is down 11% this year, with Bill Ackman buying the dip while TCI Fund sold most of its $8 billion stake.

The Gates Foundation Trust has fully exited Microsoft. After steadily trimming its position over the past year, the charity sold its final 7.7 million shares in Q1 2026 — a stake worth around $3.2 billion at current prices, according to an SEC filing.

Microsoft Corporation, MSFT

The move closes the book on one of the most symbolic institutional holdings in tech history.

A year ago, the Trust held 28.5 million MSFT shares, worth $10.7 billion and making up 26% of the fund. By end of 2025, that had already been cut to 7.7 million. The Q1 2026 filing confirmed the rest was gone.

The sole trustee is Bill Gates, though day-to-day management falls to Cascade Asset Management. Neither Cascade nor Microsoft responded to comment requests.

Why the Foundation Sold

This isn’t a vote of no confidence. The Foundation is winding down over a 20-year period — Gates announced that plan last year — and all assets are expected to be spent by then.

Running tens of billions in annual grants requires cash. Holding a concentrated position in a single stock, even a great one, creates real liquidity and concentration risk. The Trust was managing its portfolio like a portfolio manager, not a founder.

MSFT has also slipped 11% this year, though its fundamentals remain intact. The company posted $281 billion in trailing revenue and $149 billion in operating income. Azure continues growing at a double-digit pace.

On top of that, the valuation picture looks reasonable compared to peers. MSFT trades at around 21x forward earnings, against Alphabet at 28x, Amazon at 32x, and Apple at 33x.

What’s Happening Around MSFT Right Now

The stock has become a bit of a split camp lately. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman disclosed this week that he bought Microsoft after the recent selloff.

On the other side, TCI Fund Management — run by Chris Hohn — recently sold most of its $8 billion position in the company.

So while the Gates Foundation is out, Ackman is in. That tells you something about where sentiment sits right now.

Gates personally still owns 103 million Microsoft shares worth around $43 billion, according to FactSet. The Trust exit doesn’t change that.

The company holds over $78 billion in cash and short-term investments and generated more than $73 billion in trailing free cash flow. Its AI infrastructure push — built around Azure and its OpenAI partnership — keeps it at the center of enterprise AI spending.

Microsoft’s Q1 2026 13F filing confirmed the Trust’s position had fallen to zero. That’s the most recent data point in this story.

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