News that Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft, offloaded a large amount of Microsoft stock has drawn intense interest from investors. Gates himself did not sell, but it was revealed that the Gates Foundation Trust, which manages his asset, disposed of 65% of its Microsoft equity in the third quarter. The foundation cut the value of its Microsoft equity from the previous $13.9 billion (about 20.3 trillion won) to $4.76 billion (about 7 trillion won). As a result, Microsoft's weight in the portfolio fell from No. 1 to No. 4.
On the 21st (local time), according to U.S. financial outlet "24/7 Wall St.," the Trust foundation is a fund management body for public-interest activities and operates separately from Gates' direct investment decisions. Even so, the sharp reduction in equity of a company founded by its creator is prompting various interpretations in the market.
Microsoft remains a flagship U.S. tech stock. Under Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Satya Nadella, the company greatly expanded its corporate value through the growth of its cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and Office ecosystem, and it has been cited this year as one of the main beneficiaries of the AI boom. In fact, Microsoft's share price hit this year's record high ($555), extending its all-time-high streak.
However, as a broader pullback spread across AI-related stocks recently, Microsoft also fell about 12% from its peak. On top of that, with the "AI bubble" debate weighing on sentiment in the short term, the Gates Foundation's large-scale selling has raised the question of whether this is a normal portfolio adjustment or a warning sign.
Experts say the sale is less a negative signal about Microsoft itself and more part of securing liquidity needed for running the foundation and diversifying the portfolio. The Gates Foundation has set plans to raise annual subsidies to $9 billion through next year and to exhaust the foundation's funds by 2045. Reducing reliance on a single stock and reallocating asset to more stable names fits the operating principles of a public-interest foundation.
In this quarter, the Trust foundation also pared major holdings beyond Microsoft, including UPS and Crown Castle. This is interpreted as an overall portfolio rebalancing unrelated to any specific corporation's earnings or outlook. The Trust still remains a major shareholder with more than 9 million Microsoft shares.
Meanwhile, from an earnings perspective, Microsoft continues to show steady momentum. As seen in Nvidia's recent results, investment in AI and data centers is still growing, and that ties directly to Microsoft's Azure business. The rollout of the AI "Copilot" across key services such as Office and Windows is also expanding, leading to assessments that its medium- to long-term growth remains solid.
For this reason, the market consensus is that the Gates Foundation's sale itself is hard to view as a sell signal for retail investors. Portfolio adjustments by institutions with different investment objectives do not necessarily connect to a corporation's direction. Rather, there is also analysis that Microsoft has become more attractive in the medium to long term at a relatively lower valuation after the pullback.