Bill Gates’ bank account grew by $2 billion this week as Microsoft shares rose after the business posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Microsoft’s stock price increased 9% on Wednesday, increasing its market value by $174 billion and increasing Gates’ entire net worth to $122 billion.
The co-founder of Microsoft currently controls 103 million shares, or around 1% of the business.
Microsoft announced first-quarter earnings of $2.45 per share on first-quarter revenue of $52.86 billion on Tuesday. The company’s earnings were $49.36 billion a year earlier.
The corporation also offered an update on its AI initiatives, a crucial aspect of its operations, noting that AI functionality has already been introduced to its cloud storage and Bing search engine.
During the company’s earnings call on Tuesday, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said, “As with any significant platform shift, it starts with innovation. And we are enthusiastic about the early responses and indications of demand for the AI capabilities we have so far announced.
As we scale with the rising demand, driven by customer change, she continued, “We will continue to invest in our cloud infrastructure, particularly AI-related spend.”