Bill Gates gives £3.6bn to charity

Bill Gates has given £3.6bn to charity, the largest single donation he has made for almost two decades.

The world's richest man gave away 64 million Microsoft shares, equivalent to five per cent of his total fortune. He now owns just 1.3 per cent of the company he co-founded in 1975, having previously given away £12bn in 1999 and £4bn in 2000.

The latest donation was made in June but has only just become public knowledge, following the filing of a document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It brings his total charitable donations to £27bn in cash and stocks since 1994.

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The majority of all previous donations have been made to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is primarily focused on reducing world poverty, combating infectious diseases and providing universal access to computers.

It is not known who the recipient of this latest donation is, "however when federal documents are filed, it usually means new money is being given to a foundation", the BBC reports.

Gates remains the richest person on Earth even after the donation, with a fortune the Bloomberg Billionaires Index values at £67bn. However, the drop once again puts Amazon boss Jeff Bezos close to the top spot after he briefly leapfrogged Gates to become the world's richest person based on intraday prices last month.