Bill Gates and his wife Melinda live in a mansion near Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. The house and property are valued at $125 million with an annual tax of just over $900,000. The estate has a 60 sq ft swimming pool and a dining room over 1,000 sq ft. The land area measures over 65,000 sq ft.
Background
He was born William Henry Gates on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. He studied at Lakeside School and early on showed interest in computers and programming. He was in eighth grade when he began writing computer programming code.
He graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. While at Harvard, he remained in close contact with Steve Balmer and Paul Allen, future partners at Microsoft.
It was in 1975 when Bill Gates (still at Harvard) decided to form a computer company with his friend Paul Allen. He decided to drop out of school and start the company, which he and Allen called Microsoft.
Bill Gates’ house near Seattle, nicknamed Xanadu 2.0
Bill Gates’ house near Seattle is quite extraordinary. It’s worth over $130 million and has so many unique features that it even has its own Wikipedia page. This is because Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, is one of the richest people globally, with a net worth that surpasses the GDP of many countries. Although he used to be the richest person in the world, he’s currently ranked fourth in terms of wealth, after Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault, the founder of LVMH, a French luxury brand.
Bill Gates’ net worth is astonishing, exceeding $100 billion. Even though he has reduced his involvement in business activities in recent years to focus on running the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which happens to be the largest private charitable foundation globally, he has stayed close to home.
Bill Gates was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. He resides in a massive 66,000-square-foot mansion nestled into a hillside overlooking Lake Washington in Medina. Medina is a small city located on the opposite shore of Lake Washington from Seattle. Interestingly, this tiny city, with a population of just under 3,000 people according to the 2010 census, is also home to fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos.
Gates’ house has a captivating name, Xanadu 2.0, inspired by the fictional residence of Charles Foster Kane, the main character in Orson Welles’ famous movie, Citizen Kane. This mansion is worth well over $130 million and boasts some truly unique features that match the deep pockets of its owner.
Bill Gates’ house has almost as many kitchens as it has bedrooms
Bill Gates’ colossal 66,000-square-foot mansion is filled with an array of rooms that serve various purposes. Let’s start with the more typical rooms. The house has 7 bedrooms and a whopping 24 bathrooms – yes, you read that correctly, more than three bathrooms for each bedroom suite. But here’s where it gets interesting – there are 6 kitchens in the house.
You might wonder why on earth one home needs so many kitchens. Well, it begins to make sense when you discover that the mansion includes a 2,300-square-foot reception hall capable of hosting up to 200 people.
The dining room alone can comfortably seat 24 guests. There’s also a magnificent 60-foot pool, a 1,500-square-foot art deco theater, and a 1-bedroom guest house where Bill Gates reportedly wrote his book, “The Road Ahead,” while the main house was still under construction.
Another fascinating feature is a massive 2,500-square-foot fitness facility that contains a room with a 20-foot-high ceiling for trampolining (apparently one of the billionaire’s favorite ways to unwind). The fitness facility also includes a sauna, steam room, and separate locker rooms for men and women.
Xanadu 2.0’s most striking room is the library
Bill Gates’ home, Xanadu 2.0, boasts a truly remarkable room – his library. Bill Gates is known for his love of reading and his annual book recommendations. To cater to his passion, he ensured that his house included an enormous library that spans 2,100 square feet. This library is a design marvel with a domed reading room and two secret pivoting bookcases. One of these bookcases even conceals a bar.
One of the most striking features in the library is a quote inscribed at the base of the dome, taken from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby.” It reads, “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it.”
However, the real treasure of the library lies in the collection of books and manuscripts it holds. Among these is a prized possession: Leonardo da Vinci’s 16th-century collection of scientific writings, the Codex Leicester, which Bill Gates acquired for a staggering $30.8 million.
Bill Gates’ house is as tech-heavy as you’d expect
Bill Gates’ house is every bit as tech-heavy as you might expect from the co-founder of Microsoft, a company that revolutionized personal computing. It’s brimming with cutting-edge technology that offers unique and extravagant features.
The house is equipped with an expansive server system that covers the entire estate. The 60-foot swimming pool even has an underwater music system to entertain swimmers. To add to the high-tech ambiance, there are around $80,000 worth of computer screens placed throughout the house, specifically designed for displaying digital art.
Guests of Gates’ mansion are provided with devices, valued at an additional $150,000, which enable them to select their preferred paintings or photographs to be displayed on these screens. The home also incorporates an advanced sensor system, which allows visitors to monitor and adjust the climate and lighting in each room. Guests receive a unique pin that interacts with these sensors, giving them control over temperature and lighting settings. Furthermore, hidden speakers behind the wallpaper ensure that music can follow guests as they move from one room to another.
DOS and Windows
In 1990, Microsoft was approached by IBM to help them develop an operating system. Microsoft came up with PC DOS (later on it became known as MS-DOS). The operating system would become very successful and established Microsoft as a major player in the industry.
But the success of MS-DOS was only the beginning. DOS was only meant to be a temporary operating system. IBM was busy developing OS/2 which would employ a GUI (graphical user interface) and other advanced features. While OS/2 was being developed, Microsoft and Bill Gates released Windows.
Windows brought a GUI interface to PCs and it sold millions of copies. The partnership with IBM ended. Millions of computer users bought Windows and turned Microsoft into the biggest software maker in the industry. Microsoft also began developing word processors and spreadsheet software which would dominate the market as well.
Wealth
The success of Microsoft established Gates as one of the richest individuals in history. During the dot com bubble in the late 1990s, his wealth exceeded over $100 billion. Besides his salary and stock holdings in Microsoft, Bill Gates has investments in other companies as well.
Besides their wealth, the Gates are also known for their philanthropic activities. Estimates have put their total donations to charity at over $28 billion. Their foundation is known for being transparent. The foundation has been set up so it becomes easy to see just how the money is being spent.
Criticism
However, the foundation has also drawn criticism because it invests assets in various companies solely for the purpose of making money. It has been alleged that these companies have contributed to poverty and thus run counter to the foundation’s goals.
Under his leadership, Microsoft has also come under fire for alleged unfair business dealings. Several times the company has been sued and brought to court. Chiefly these cases involve Microsoft using their dominance to gain unfair business advantages when selling software.
Although he is no longer actively involved with Microsoft, there is no question that Bill Gates’ influence remains huge. Whatever one thinks of his actions and management style, his role in pioneering and popularizing computers cannot be denied.
