The world's wealthiest man Bill Gates is to finish his daily involvement in Microsoft in two years in order to spend more time giving his money away.
The software billionaire, worth £27bn, wants to hand over his role at Microsoft by 2008, yet he will stay on as the company's non-executive chairman.
He will devote his time and energy to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This hands out more than $1bn each year, especially to combat diseases like malaria, polio and Aids.
He still thinks that the company's prospects will be as bright as ever.
Bill Gates, 50, started the company in 1975 along with his friend Paul Allen, who quit six years ago. The duo steered Microsoft's Windows operating system to top position within the software world. A brand new version, Vista, is goig to be released by Christmas .
Bill Gates, gets 4m emails each day, and is to be replaced by Ray Ozzie, presently the chief technical officer.
Bill Gates recently received an honorary knighthood from the Queen in 2005 with Bono. Bill, his wife and Bono were termed Time magazine's "persons of the year" in 2005 for rendering global debt reduction "sexy".
The foundation has assets of $29.5bn, with part of the money funding computers and scholarships for disadvantaged students in the USA . However, the lion's share goes to healthcare in poorer countries.
The charity provides 90% of the entire global funding for eradication of polio. It also makes massive contributions to international efforts to irradicate for diphtheria, tuberculosis and whooping cough.
