Who is Melinda French Gates?
Melinda French Gates is the American philanthropist and investor who founded an investment and advocacy firm for women and families and co-chaired the Gates Foundation, which she co-founded with Bill Gates, from 2000 to 2024. Forbes valued her at $30.3 billion on its 2026 World’s Billionaires list, published on 10 March 2026, which ranks her 74th in the world 13.
How did Melinda French Gates make her money?
Her wealth comes from assets she received from Bill Gates in their 2021 divorce, plus her own investments. The couple announced their separation in May 2021 and the divorce was finalised on 2 August 2021, after 27 years of marriage. Wikipedia reports that she received more than $2 billion in shares and stock in the settlement, did not request spousal support, and that the couple had no prenuptial agreement. She has pledged to give away most of her wealth 134.
Early life and education
Melinda Ann French was born on 15 August 1964 in Dallas, Texas, the second of four children of Raymond Joseph French Jr., an aerospace engineer, and Elaine Agnes Amerland, a homemaker. She was valedictorian of Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 1982, then earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics at Duke University in 1986 and an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business in 1987 2.
Microsoft, the foundation and her own firm
She joined Microsoft in 1987 and worked on products including Encarta, Publisher and Bob, becoming general manager of Information Products before leaving in 1996. She co-chaired the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2000 and announced her resignation on 13 May 2024, effective 7 June 2024. In 2015 she founded her own firm to address problems affecting women and families in the United States, and she committed $1 billion to it in 2019 and a further $1 billion in 2025 23. Read Melinda French Gates’s companies.
Family
She married Bill Gates in 1994 in a private ceremony in Lanai, Hawaii. They have three children, and their eldest daughter Jennifer married Nayel Nassar in October 2021 24. See Melinda French Gates’s family.
Melinda French Gates net worth
Forbes put her at $30.3 billion in March 2026, about ₹2.85 lakh crore at ₹94 to the dollar 1. See Melinda French Gates net worth and our ranking of the wealthiest women in the world, led by Alice Walton.