BILL GATES
In February, Gates and his wife, Melinda, more than doubled the assets in their two foundations thorugh a $3.3 billion gift. Our list, however, won't count the contributions until the money gets put to use. Even so, the Microsoft couple ranks 15th, having given away $196 million by the end of 1998.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTOINE LEGRAND
Well, my interest in this photo is really the contour glass bottle. Clearly it's a Coke bottle partially full (or empty) with a paper label. It's definitely not an American bottle, likely an European one. Was the bottle just a prop or did it belong to Mr. Gates (or Mr. Le Grand)?
According to Mr. Gates, he drank 3-4 Diet Cokes in the office back in 2014. (See GatesNotes - The Blog of Bill Gates from June 12, 2014) Maybe he switched from Coke to Diet in the new millennium.
Elon Musk had tweeted posted a photo of his bedside table on November 28, 2022 with 4 opened (or emptied) Caffeine-free Diet Coke cans.
Warren Buffet of course is a well known decades-long Cherry Coke drinker and in 2017 a special edition of Cherry Coke was produced in China in his honor.