
Bill Gates wasn’t always known as a wise and benevolent philanthropist (and clap-heavy dancer), dedicated to, among other things, finding a cure for cancer, funding public health studies that illuminate the harmful effects of alcohol, or sounding the alarm on how destructive a global pandemic would be.
Since sometime after 1986, when he appeared on the Fortune cover at age 30 for a deal that made him $350 million (about $950 million today, adjusted for inflation), he became something more like a supervillain. By 1995, Time put him on the cover with the headline “Master of the Universe.” Things change, though. Wired highlighted “Bill Gates’ plan to save the world” in 2021.