• Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has a net worth of $160 billion.
• The billionaire and philanthropist plans to give away most of his wealth to his charity foundation.
• For now, he spends his wealth on luxuries, from his car collection to a vast real estate portfolio.

Bill Gates may be one of the 10 richest people on earth, but he doesn't plan to stay that way forever.

The billionaire philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft has pledged to give away most of his wealth to charity, which he says will bump him off the world's richest people list.

Gates' net worth is $160 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. He is one of only a handful of moguls to reach centibillionaire status.

He's also made some lavish purchases over the years: Gates owns a mansion in Medina, Washington; a private airplane; and a luxury car collection. These indulgences comprise only a fraction of his massive fortune.

Gates has also given money to charitable causes through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and vowed to give away most of his fortune through the Giving Pledge, which he and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates launched in 2010 along with Warren Buffett.

Here's a look at how Gates spends his billions.

Gates has an estimated net worth of $160 billion.

Gates long held the title as the world's richest person, up until 2018 when Jeff Bezos surpassed him.

Now, Gates is only the world's seventh-richest person and part of an exclusive club of centibillionaires — people worth over $100 billion.

Gates has invested in various stocks and assets and launched a $1 billion investment fund, Breakthrough Energy, alongside 20 other investors.

Despite his massive fortune, Gates previously told Ellen DeGeneres that when he became a billionaire at age 31 (which was history's youngest billionaire at the time), he didn't immediately start splurging. Gates' initial spending spree was limited to just two "crazy" purchases: a Porsche and a private jet.

Gates has splurged on some things, like his luxury car collection.

After founding Microsoft, Gates bought a Porsche 911 — his first big splurge, which he purchased in 1979, even before Microsoft's hit products like Windows and Word ever reached the market. Gates later sold the Porsche, and it was auctioned for $80,000.

Gates' car collection later included a Porsche 959.

Gates also owns a small fleet of private jets.

Gates invested heavily in his Washington estate called Xanadu 2.0.

Gates owns at least 12 parcels of land spanning about 10.5 acres in Medina. He purchased the land for a combined $34 million between 1988 and 2009. In 2023, the Gates' property taxes in Medina came to $1.3 million.

Gates' estate includes a 60-foot pool — in its own separate, 3,900-square-foot building — with an underwater sound system. He reportedly paid to import sand from St. Lucia in the Caribbean to the shore surrounding his house.

There's also a 2,100-square-foot library, home to a 16th-century Leonardo da Vinci manuscript that Gates bought at auction for $30 million in 1994. The home also features several famous paintings, including a Winslow Homer painting Gates purchased for $36 million in 1988.

The mansion has six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, a home theater, and various garages for his 23 cars.

Gates also has properties in Florida and Montana.

Aside from his Washington home, Gates has a 20-acre estate in Wellington, Florida. The estate includes at least two mansions, one 6,668 square feet, and the other 5,716 square feet. He bought the properties over three years for about $35 million.

Gates' daughter, Jennifer Gates Nassar, is an accomplished equestrian, and he bought the property to support her passion. It serves as the home base of her horseback riding facilities, and the area is a hot spot for many other wealthy equestrians as well.

He also purchased property at the Yellowstone Club in Montana. The main house is 6,993 square feet and has eight full baths, eight bedrooms, a sauna, and a home theater, according to property records.

Additionally, Gates is the biggest owner of private farmland in the country, with a whopping 275,000 acres. Gates has faced questions in the past about what he is doing with the land, and has downplayed concerns about the farmland, saying it's managed by his investment team and makes up only a small fraction of total US farmlands.

Gates has several properties in California, too.

In California, Gates owns the 228-acre Rancho Paseana, which he purchased for $18 million. When he bought it, the property had a racetrack, olive orchard, and five barns.

In 2020, he dropped $43 million on an oceanfront home in Del Mar with a 10-person Jacuzzi and 120 feet of Pacific coastline.

Gates also owns a 6-bedroom home on the grounds of Indian Wells' famous Vintage Club.

There's also another home on the grounds of a country club, Santaluz Club, in San Diego.

Some of the properties have likely been divvied up between Gates and French Gates following their divorce.

Gates has made numerous investments through his personal investment firm.

Using his personal investment firm, Cascade, Gates has made several investments, including partial ownership of the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 2013, Gates and several unnamed buyers paid $161 million for the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco.

Gates takes luxurious vacations.

Gates never took weekends or vacations during the early days of Microsoft, and has said startup founders shouldn't, either. However, Gates made time for some splashy trips later in his career.

In 2014, he treated his family to a Mediterranean vacation on board the 439-foot superyacht Serene, which he chartered for $5 million a week. It included a helicopter.

He's also traveled to Australia, Croatia, Belize, and the Amazon in Brazil.

He previously said that he likes to play tennis and go skiing. He's also been spotted at tennis matches.

But Gates' downtime isn't always so adventurous. Gates loves books, and is an "avid bridge player," as he told Reddit in a 2013 AMA.

Gates is a well-known philanthropist.

Gates has sometimes said he has no use for money, and often speaks of his philanthropic giving and healthcare investments.

A grant from Gates and his then-wife Melinda led to the creation in 2003 of Amyris, a synthetic biology company that originally produced precursors to malaria drugs and hydrocarbon-based biofuel but also uses the technology for things like fragrances, skincare, and sweeteners. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023.

In November 2017, Gates invested $50 million into Alzheimer's research. In 2018, he invested another $30 million with a group of investors in the Diagnostics Accelerator, a "venture philanthropy" fund to diagnose Alzheimer's earlier.

Gates and his former wife also pledged about $2 billion to defeat malaria, donated over $50 million to fight Ebola, and pledged $38 million to a Japanese pharmaceutical company working to create a low-cost polio vaccine.

During the pandemic, their foundation announced a 5-year, $1.6 billion commitment to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to deliver vaccines in the world's poorest countries.

The Gates Foundation also funds education through its $1.6 billion initiative known as the Gates Millennium Scholars Program.

The foundation said it made $77.6 billion in grant payments from its inception through Q4 2023. Gates' total giving to the foundation during that time period totaled $59.5 billion.

Its 2024 budget is $8.6 billion, and the foundation is targeting a $9 billion yearly budget by 2026.

In the future, Gates has pledged to give most of his wealth away.

Gates is frequently named among the most generous philanthropists in the United States.

He has vowed to give away most of his fortune through the Giving Pledge, which he helped launch in 2010.

In July 2022, he reiterated that he plans to give virtually all his wealth to his and French Gates' foundation, saying that he'll eventually fall off the list of the world's richest figures.

• Microsoft certifications can help demonstrate your skills for jobs like IT or software engineering.
• Microsoft offers a variety of certifications in its products like Azure, Windows, or Microsoft 365.
• Microsoft offers free, self-paced training, and you can pay to take an exam and become certified.

Microsoft certifications are recognized industry-wide, and are a way for professionals to tangibly demonstrate that they have expertise in a given subject area.

Microsoft certifications are geared towards those entering tech-related fields like IT, software development, data science, and more. The certifications focus on a variety of Microsoft products like Azure, Dynamics, Microsoft 365, and more.

Tech jobs — whether it's an IT role at a mid-sized business or a job at Microsoft itself — are known for being highly competitive. Given the prevalence of Microsoft products in the business world, these certifications shouldn't be overlooked as a way to both show your knowledge and demonstrate your proficiency with Microsoft products.

How Microsoft certifications work

If you're interested in a Microsoft certification, you have a few routes you can take to learn the material: you can pay for instructor-led training from Microsoft itself or from a Microsoft-partnered training organization, or you can take free, self-paced training provided by Microsoft.

To actually become certified, you'll need to pay to take an exam. Most of the exams are online proctored exams that you can do from your own home and computer, but you also have the option to schedule your exam at a test center if you wish.

If you're doing the online version, know that you'll be assigned a proctor to monitor you during the exam, and you'll have to submit photos of your ID and the room you're taking the exam in.

With some exceptions, most Microsoft certifications are good for 12 months, after which they must be renewed. The good news is that renewals are free and just require you to pass an online assessment that is shorter than the original exam. The assessments are also un-proctored and open book. But be warned: you have only six months to complete this or you'll have to retake the original exam.

How much do Microsoft certifications cost?

Exam and training costs can vary significantly depending on the Microsoft certification, and depending on where you're located. Instructor-led courses typically cost the most — some courses in the US can total thousands of dollars — but you have the benefit of a human instructor who can answer your questions and offer tips on the material and exam.

If you go the self-paced training route through Microsoft, your only cost is the exam, which typically costs between $99 and $165, depending on the certification and your location.

What are the most valuable Microsoft certifications?

What Microsoft certifications you should get boils down to your personal interests, and what certifications are most in demand and correlate with high-earning jobs. This can fluctuate over time.

With the prevalence of cloud computing these days, Azure-based certifications are in high demand and jobs like network engineer pay quite well. And amid the ongoing AI arms race that has taken the tech world by storm, a certification in machine learning or generative AI solutions could give you a competitive edge in the job market.

Cybersecurity skills are also in high demand, and Microsoft offers a certification for cybersecurity solutions using Microsoft technologies.

Microsoft's website allows you to browse credentials and filter the various Microsoft certifications based on what type of role you're seeking, such as DevOps engineer or database administrator, or what type of product you want to specialize in, like Microsoft Fabric, Windows, Power BI, or Copilot.

Microsoft certifications for beginners

While intermediate and senior certifications generally correlate with the highest annual salaries, the material is complex and advanced, and they're not necessarily the first certifications you should look for if you're new to the IT field, cloud computing, or to Microsoft technology.

Microsoft certifications are categorized into levels, and labeled as beginner, intermediate, or advanced. You can always start with beginner certifications like Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (also known as AZ-900) that teaches you the fundamentals of Azure.

Even if you don't take the fundamentals exam and are aiming for a higher-level certification, it can still be worth going through the free self-paced training documentation for the fundamentals courses to help bring yourself up to speed. Everyone starts with different knowledge baselines.

• Microsoft has had three CEOs since its founding in 1975.
• Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella have steered the company through its 50-year history.
• Read about the CEOs who oversaw Microsoft's successes, failures, launches, acquisitions, and more.

Satya Nadella has been Microsoft's CEO since February 4, 2014, and its executive chairman since June 2021. He is the company's third CEO since its incorporation in 1975.

Let's break down the company's chief executives and their tenures:

Bill Gates (1975-2000)

The Microsoft Corporation was co-founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, shortly after the pair dropped out of Harvard University. Gates said he dropped out of Harvard to found Microsoft because he feared missing out on being a pioneer of the personal computing revolution.

As the company's first chief executive, Gates steered the company through its formative years and set forth Microsoft's original mission of "a computer on every desk and in every home." A pivotal moment came in 1980 when Microsoft secured a deal to supply the operating system for IBM's first personal computer. To accomplish this, Microsoft purchased an existing operating system, modified it, and renamed it MS-DOS — short for Microsoft Disk Operating System — which became the foundation for the company's early success.

In 1985, the company launched Windows 1.0, introducing the Graphical User Interface that made computing more accessible to the masses. Subsequent releases like Windows 3.0 in 1990 and the highly successful Windows 95 in 1995 built upon this innovation, with each release solidifying Microsoft's operating system market dominance, which Microsoft enjoys to this day — in part due to the success of these earlier operating systems. Under Gates' leadership, the company also developed the Microsoft Office suite, which became the industry standard for business productivity software.

The company's rapid growth led to its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 1986, making Gates a billionaire by the age of 31 and, at one point, the world's richest man. Throughout the 1990s, Microsoft's influence expanded globally, but it also faced significant legal challenges. In 1998, the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing the corporate giant of monopolistic practices by bundling Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system. The prolonged legal battle brought scrutiny, but ultimately, the two parties reached a settlement in 2001 that imposed certain restrictions on Microsoft's business practices.

Despite these challenges, Gates continued to drive innovation, investing heavily in research and development. Microsoft expanded into various areas, including enterprise software, internet services, and gaming, laying the groundwork for future ventures like the Xbox. Gates' leadership emphasized not only technological advancement but also strategic business moves that kept Microsoft at the forefront of the industry.

After leading the company for its first 25 years, Gates resigned in 2000 to focus on his philanthropic efforts, founding the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that same year. His tenure left a significant mark on the industry, with Microsoft's software becoming integral to personal and professional computing worldwide. Gates continued on as Microsoft's chief software architect until 2006 and as company chairman until 2014, when Satya Nadella took over the role. Gates remained on the board as a technical advisor before stepping down entirely in 2020.

Steve Ballmer (2000-2014)

Steve Ballmer, who joined Microsoft in 1980 as the company's first business manager, played a pivotal role in shaping its early business strategies. Ballmer succeeded Bill Gates as president and CEO of the company after the founder stepped down in 2000. Recognizing the need for agility in a rapidly evolving tech industry, he initiated extensive internal restructuring that favored speed and fewer bureaucratic hurdles.

With Ballmer at the helm, Microsoft faced significant successes, but also its fair share of challenges. In 2001, the company launched the Xbox, marking its entry into the gaming console market. The Xbox and its successors would come to rival and challenge the market dominance of the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo. The success seen by the Xbox and its successors helped cement Microsoft as a serious player in the entertainment sector.

Ballmer's tenure also saw the release of Windows XP, an operating system so successful that it took until 2016 for another iteration of Windows to actually surpass Windows XP in terms of user base. The following year, it was still the third most popular operating system in the world, despite Windows XP's retirement in April 2014.

However, not all initiatives fared so well. The release of Windows Vista in 2007 was met with widespread criticism due to performance issues and compatibility problems, tarnishing the reputation of Microsoft's flagship operating system. Additionally, Microsoft's efforts in the smartphone arena with Windows Mobile struggled to gain traction. Combined with the introduction of the Apple iPhone in 2007 and the rapid advancement of Google's Android platform, this led to Microsoft ceding significant ground in the burgeoning mobile market that it never recovered. Microsoft tried again with the Windows Phone mobile operating system in October 2010 before throwing in the towel in 2017 and prioritizing iOS and Android development in 2018.

In an effort to bolster services, Microsoft acquired Skype, the video calling service, in 2011 for $8.5 billion. The Skype acquisition helped Microsoft gain valuable ground in both consumer and enterprise communication sectors that was not usurped until 2021 when Microsoft voluntarily replaced it in the business context with Microsoft Teams.

Despite the challenges that Microsoft confronted during Ballmer's tenure as CEO, Microsoft experienced significant financial growth under his leadership. By the time Ballmer announced his retirement in 2013 and officially stepped down in February 2014, the company's annual revenue had tripled. This growth reflected the company's product portfolio expansion and its increased global market reach. Ballmer's tenure was marked by his efforts to diversify Microsoft's offerings and navigate the company through a transformative era in the technology industry, contending with fierce competition and headwinds while building on the company's foundations.

Satya Nadella (2014-present)

Following Steve Ballmer's resignation in February 2014, Satya Nadella took on the role of chief executive and chairman of the board.

Under Nadella's leadership, the company has undergone a significant transformation from a traditional software provider to a leader in cloud computing and subscription services. Recognizing the shifting tech landscape, Nadella prioritized investment in cloud infrastructure, expanding Microsoft Azure into one of the world's foremost cloud platforms. In fact, in 2020 Azure surpassed Microsoft's Windows business. This monumental strategic pivot also involved embracing mobile technologies and shifting key products to subscription-based models, exemplified by the launch of Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) in June 2011. By 2015, the number of monthly Microsoft 365 users exceeded 50 million.

Nadella's tenure has been marked by several high-profile acquisitions aimed at diversifying Microsoft's portfolio and strengthening its position across various markets. In 2014, Microsoft acquired Mojang, the creator of the immensely popular video game Minecraft, for $2.5 billion. This was followed by the purchase of the professional networking site LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion and GitHub in 2018, the leading platform for software development collaboration, for $7.6 billion. These acquisitions broadened Microsoft's offerings and integrated valuable communities and services into its ecosystem.

In more recent years, Nadella has steered Microsoft toward becoming a key player in artificial intelligence. The company has invested heavily in AI research and development, most notably through Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI, after overcoming initial skepticism. As of 2024, Microsoft has invested $13 billion into its OpenAI partnership, plans to obtain 1.8 million AI chips by year-end, and invest $100 billion through 2027 in GPUs and expanding its AI data centers.

• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a charitable organization with a $75.2-billion endowment.
• The nonprofit was created by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his now ex-wife, Melinda French Gates.
• The foundation supports causes related to global health issues, poverty, and inequity.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization founded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his then-wife, Melinda French Gates. The foundation has donated tens of billions of dollars to issues like global health, gender equality, water sanitation programs, nutrition education and support, and more.

The Gates Foundation, which is a 501(c)(3) organization, partners with groups that can do impactful work on specific issues in specific areas — medical researchers studying mosquito-borne illness in Tanzania, for example — and helps ensure there is proper funding for the work.

The Gates Foundation is one of the largest such organizations, second only to Denmark's medical research-focused Novo Nordisk Foundation. Its size and scope noted, there is still much people wonder about the BMGF, so let's take a closer look at who it supports, who runs it, and just how much money we're talking about here.

The history, ownership, and wealth of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was formed in 2000 as an offshoot of the William H. Gates Foundation, which the Microsoft founder created six years earlier. Bill Gates stepped down as Microsoft CEO in 2008 to devote more of his time to the foundation.

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates divorced in August of 2021, and she resigned from her position as co-chair and trustee of the foundation in the spring of 2024. However, despite the couple's divorce, the Gates Foundation is still very active and is even growing the scope of its operations and its endowment. The foundation has about 2,000 employees, and has offices all over the world, including several in Africa, Europe, and Asia.

The former power couple aren't actually the owners of the organization. The Gates Foundation is owned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust.

The Gates Foundation is best known for funding efforts to eradicate diseases like polio and malaria worldwide and addressing global poverty and malnutrition. It works closely with global health organizations like the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The foundation has backed efforts like developing and delivering vaccines to poverty-stricken countries, supporting agriculture and reducing food insecurity in developing nations, and committed more than $2 billion to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the foundation has also received criticism from global health and development experts, who have accused the organization of lacking transparency and accountability. Despite being a private, unelected entity, the foundation has had major effects and implications on public policy around the world, and its critics say it makes decisions based on the whims of its billionaire trustees rather than voters.

For instance, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into agricultural development in Africa over the years via a "green revolution" emphasizing technological innovations in farming. Instead, multiple organizations have called the efforts a failure and urged the foundation to instead listen to the needs of African farmers.

Bill and Melinda Gates have also acknowledged shortcomings in the foundation's strategies. For instance, despite spending billions on improving the US education system, with the goal of boosting high school graduation rates, the couple acknowledged that the foundation's efforts to improve American public schools were "still falling short" and said the foundation hadn't accomplished as much as they would like.

How much money does the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have?

The foundation is well-endowed, largely thanks to donations directly from the Gates themselves and billionaire Warren Buffett. BMGF has also made some excellent investments over the years.

According to its website, the foundation has an endowment of $75.2 billion. Bill and Melinda Gates have given $59.5 billion to the foundation since its inception, and Buffet has given $39.3 billion since 2006.

The foundation has billions of dollars of Microsoft stock, which is little surprise given that the software company is the provenance of Bill Gates' wealth. Bill Gates' net worth fluctuates with the stock market, but it is well over $100 billion — and that's after subtracting the $76 billion Melinda Gates gained when the couple separated.

Notably, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does not give money to individuals, its website states, nor does it donate to "projects addressing health problems in developed countries," "political campaigns and legislative lobbying efforts," "building or capital campaigns," or "projects that exclusively serve religious purposes."

• Microsoft holds quarterly earnings calls to discuss the company's financial performance.
• In 2024, earnings calls touched on topics like the Activision Blizzard acquisition, AI, and layoffs.
• Here's what to know about Microsoft's revenues, profits, and more.

Information about Microsoft's earnings is released publicly at the end of each quarter of the fiscal year. For Microsoft, this is done during an earnings call usually hosted by CEO Satya Nadella.

An earnings call consists of company executives laying out the current state of the company's financial situation and explaining how the company performed over the course of the closing quarter. It also involves projections about upcoming fiscal performance. These calls are closely watched by investors, economists, and regulators.

In 2024, some of the major themes on these earnings calls were the advancement of AI tools like Copilot, which was first launched in late 2023, and layoffs at Microsoft, largely in the company's gaming division.

Microsoft Q1 earnings 2025

Things were going well for Microsoft as of the October 2024 earnings call which covered the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year calendar. Revenues were just over $65.6 billion, a 16% increase year-over-year.

Among the specifics discussed were a 10% increase in revenue for LinkedIn and a 61% increase in revenues for Xbox "content and services."

The company reportedly returned $9 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks. On October 30, Microsoft's stock price was trading at around $432 per share.

Microsoft Q4 earnings 2024

The July 2024 earnings call was mostly filled with good news. Amy Hood, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft reported that the quarterly revenue was $64.7 billion, which was up 15% over the previous quarter.

Hood also reported that share prices were up $2.95 over the previous quarter. (On July 30, 2024, Microsoft share prices were at $4.22.92 per share at the close of the market.) Q4 was the best quarter of the fiscal year for Microsoft.

Not all the news was good, though: revenues for Xbox video game console hardware fell by 42%, and this drop surely helped account for large round of layoffs in Microsoft's gaming division.

Microsoft Q3 earnings 2024

Microsoft's revenues for the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year were almost as strong as those of the fourth quarter. In April 2024, the company reported overall revenues of $61.9 billion for the months of January, February, and March of that year, a 17% year-over-year increase.

Revenues increased for platforms like LinkedIn and software suites like Office 365, but decreased for some physical device sales. Share prices increased by $2.94 on average. And Xbox "content and services revenue" increased by 62%, this increase coming only a few months after Microsoft's acquisition of the gaming company Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft Q2 earnings 2024

In the months of October, November, and December of 2023, the second quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, revenue was almost the same as the following Q3. Q2 revenues were $62 billion, a 18% YOY increase.

The massive acquisition of Activision Blizzard concluded during the early days of this quarter, with the software company laying out $69 billion to acquire the gaming company. And artificial intelligence was top-of-mind for Nadella, who said in the earnings call that "we've moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale. By infusing AI across every layer of our tech stack, we're winning new customers and helping drive new benefits and productivity gains across every sector."

Microsoft earnings history

Like most major tech companies, Microsoft spent 2024 adjusting to the post-pandemic slump in what some are calling a tech industry recession.

At the same time, a fiercely competitive AI arms race has proven challenging, even with Microsoft's 2023 launch of Copilot.

In 2020, the peak year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft's annual revenues were $143 billion. 2021 saw an increase to $168 billion, while 2022 saw another jump to $198 billion in revenues. In 2023, Microsoft revenues were $211 billion, and when you add all those quarters of FY24 up, you'll see its 2024 fiscal year revenues were a healthy $245 billion.

• Microsoft employs some 228,000 workers globally.
• Like other large tech companies, Microsoft has implemented mass layoffs in the past.
• Microsoft's post-pandemic layoffs have primarily hit Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and Azure.

A company doesn't reach the half-century mark without a few rounds of layoffs now and then. Microsoft, founded in 1975, is gigantic in terms of revenues and employees and has been known to fire huge numbers of workers en masse from time to time.

In the 2020s, as the pandemic-prompted tech boom started to fade, many companies began doing mass layoffs.

Microsoft's job cuts have been frequent and often unexpected and severe. However, this follows a historical pattern of layoffs at the company going back many years, so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised.

Has Microsoft engaged in layoffs in the past?

Very much so. In early 2009, as the Great Recession roiled markets and economies all around the globe, Microsoft slashed 1,400 workers on a single January day, simultaneously announcing it would be letting go an additional 3,600 employees over the subsequent 18 months. But that series of layoffs was nothing compared to what would come a half decade later.

In 2014, Microsoft culled 14% of its workforce

Shortly after taking the reins as Microsoft's CEO in February 2014, Satya Nadella initiated a truly seismic round of firings. That year, the company committed to laying off 18,000 employees, both full-time and contract workers, which amounted to a 14% reduction of its global workforce, ending the coveted Microsoft careers of a staggering number of people.

2023 was a tough year for Microsoft employees

In 2023, Microsoft cut hundreds of employees from its own Xbox brand. But that was nothing compared to what would happen around the company. All told, it fired an estimated 10,000 people across myriad divisions, which was about 5% of its total workforce.

2024 saw more layoffs, especially in gaming divisions

Mere months after completing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft dismissed nearly 2,000 employees of the gaming division in January 2024. Then, in the summer, the company announced plans to cut around 1,500 more employees, largely from its Azure cloud computing division, though ultimately only about 1,000 people were let go.

In mid-September 2024, Microsoft laid off 650 workers from Xbox, pushing the number of employees let go from its gaming arms to nearly 3,000 people for the year.

Microsoft currently employs some 228,000 people worldwide, across all divisions.

Why do companies engage in layoffs?

In the simplest terms possible, layoffs are a cost-cutting measure taken by a company's leadership to save money.

They may result from a broad economic turndown affecting the entire economy or from the failure or termination of a single project or product within the company. They may also result from a change of corporate leadership or a merger or acquisition.

Being laid off is different than being fired for poor work performance (or abuses such as fraud, embezzlement, or stealing corporate secrets) and is not a reflection on the talent or work ethic of those terminated, but it's still a jarring change for those who find themselves out of a job.

• Google has faced numerous lawsuits over privacy, intellectual property, and monopoly tactics.
• The cases include federal antitrust violations over its search engine and advertising strategies.
• Google also recently settled two class-action lawsuits concerning privacy and antitrust issues.

Google is one of the world's largest and most influential companies and the most popular search engine by far. So it's no surprise that the search giant's rapidly evolving and boundary-pushing technology would attract litigation over the course of its 25-year history.

Google has been sued in dozens, if not hundreds of high-profile controversies over privacy, intellectual property, discrimination, advertising, and even defamation, and has racked up both wins and losses over the years.

Some of Google's most consequential legal cases have occurred in 2023 and 2024, including two federal antitrust cases and several class-action lawsuits. Here's what you need to know about the biggest recent cases to land on Google's docket.

Why did the US government sue Google over antitrust violations?

The US government's battle against Google has resulted in two major antitrust cases. One case is still ongoing, while Google lost one antitrust case in August 2024, when a federal judge ruled that Google's search business violated antitrust laws.

"Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," US District Judge Amit Mehta said in his ruling.

Mehta's ruling came nearly one year after a landmark monopoly trial in the fall of 2023. The dispute centered on whether Google has illegally abused its monopoly over the search engine industry, spending billions of dollars each year to suppress competition. The US government argued that Google's business dealings have blocked innovation in the search business to the detriment of internet users. 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified in the antitrust trial in October 2023. In his testimony, Pichai defended instances in which Google pushed companies like Apple and other smartphone makers into revenue-sharing agreements that would make Google the default search engine on phones and computers.

The Google CEO acknowledged on the stand that company executives knew that becoming the default search engine on smartphones "would lead to increased usage of our products and services."

Mehta's ruling found that the payments, in exchange for becoming the default search engine, amounted to an illegal monopoly.

The second major antitrust case against Google concerns its online advertising strategies, and went to trial in September 2024.

The US government, in the adtech case, alleged that Google illegally monopolized the digital advertising market by acquiring its competitors and forcing website publishers to adopt Google's tools, such as Google Ads, thereby suppressing the rise of rival technologies.

During the trial, advertising executives from competitors and former Google employees highlighted the company's lack of transparency regarding its advertising practices and its massive market power as support for the Justice Department's claims.

Closing arguments were held on November 25. During the final hearing, lawyers for Google argued that the company had earned its success in the advertising market by offering a product superior to that of its rivals.

US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema is overseeing the advertising case and has a reputation for quickly moving cases through her docket, though it remains unclear when her decision will be issued.

Brinkema is expected to rule on the dispute without a jury, and could order remedies including potentially forcing Google to sell off its digital advertising unit.

Google denied wrongdoing in both cases. The search giant argued during its 2023 trial that Google dominates the search business because it's superior to its rivals, not because of its business dealings. Google has similarly denied the claims in the advertising-related monopoly case, saying its acquisitions were legal, enabled innovative new advertising technologies, and that the federal government's lawsuit could undo years of industry progress.

What happens now that Google has lost an antitrust case?

Now that Google has lost one antitrust lawsuit, Mehta is expected to order some sort of action to boost competition in the search engine business. Google could face consequences like orders to adjust its business practices, or even a total ban on its contracts to make Google the default search engine.

The Department of Justice has proposed that Google be forced to sell its Chrome browser as a remedy in the case in an effort to level the playing field between Google and its competitors. Such a sale could result in Google raking in proceeds in the range of $15 billion to $20 billion, Peter Cohan, a professor of management practice at Babson College, previously told BI.

"The playing field is not level because of Google's conduct, and Google's quality reflects the ill-gotten gains of an advantage illegally acquired. The remedy must close this gap and deprive Google of these advantages," the DOJ's proposal states.

The DOJ also asked the judge to bar Google from paying smartphone makers to make Google the default search engine.

Mehta has not yet issued his final decision regarding remedies in the search case. The judge has set a two-week hearing in April 2025 to hear arguments over what remedies Google must take to address the search-related antitrust violations and plans to make a final ruling by the following August.

"The DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case," Lee-Anne Mulholland, the vice president of Google's regulatory affairs, previously told BI in a statement following a report that included limited details of the Justice Department's proposal. "The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed."

Both antitrust cases carry potentially massive implications for internet users — Google could face a break-up or sanctions that alter its operations so dramatically that it loses its ubiquity in the search and advertising industries, paving the way for new companies and technologies to flourish.

Google's federal antitrust cases will also likely influence the outcomes of other antitrust lawsuits the US government has filed against major tech companies. Currently, Amazon, Apple, and Meta all face similar antitrust lawsuits against their business practices that could threaten their market dominance.

What to know about Google's class-action settlements and who can claim money

Google has been the subject of two major class-action lawsuits that were resolved or nearing resolution in late 2023 and 2024.

One of the most hotly anticipated resolutions was a class-action case involving personal data collected from 136 million Google Chrome users. The lawsuit accused Google of tracking the internet activity of users who had switched to Google's "incognito" setting.

As part of a settlement agreement, Google said it would delete the search data collected from those 136 million users, which Google said was merely "old personal technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization."

Lawyers initially sought a $5 billion payout for consumers, but anyone expecting to receive a chunk of that money will need to sue Google individually to receive any damages. The settlement agreement for the class-action case did not include any monetary damages to be paid out by Google.

Google does, however, have to pay out roughly $700 million as part of a separate class-action case involving the Google Play Store. Attorneys general from five states accused Google of using monopoly tactics to box out competitors to the Google Play Store and limited users' ability to download Android apps from other app stores.

An estimated 102 million consumers were affected between August 16, 2016, and September 30, 2023, and are entitled to compensation of at least $2, the settlement agreement stipulated. Consumers who are eligible for the Google settlement don't need to submit any sort of claim to get that money, however. Consumers will receive automatic payments through PayPal or Venmo.

Google's battle over Europe's "right to be forgotten" laws

One of Google's biggest legal battles in the 2010s concerned the European Court of Justice's "right to be forgotten" ruling and whether Google was responsible for personal data that appears in its search results. Google lost its case in 2014, and the EU court ruled that individuals have the right to remove information about themselves from search engine results.

Under the ruling, Google must respond to legitimate requests from individuals to delist webpages from its search results. Larry Page, one of Google's founders and a former CEO, spoke out vehemently against the EU court's "right to be forgotten" ruling at the time, warning that repressive foreign governments could abuse the ruling.

However, in 2019, Google won a "right to be forgotten" victory in a subsequent EU court ruling, which stipulated that Google only has to delist content from search results in Europe, and the "right to be forgotten" does not apply globally.

Recent research has suggested that Google and Microsoft together have received some 150,000 "right to be forgotten" requests to delist search results each year since the EU court's ruling in 2014. The vast majority of the links targeted for delisting were from Facebook, X, and YouTube.