Bill Gates’ $95M Bet On Bud Light Beer Loses Millions

Having admitted in the past that he is “not a big beer drinker,  Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest men, has made a multi-million dollar bet on Anheuser-Busch that is so far not paying off.

Here’s the deal…

Bill Gates recently made a $95 million bet in Bud Light, purchasing 1.7 million shares of Anheuser-Busch which is home to the embattled beer brand.

Betting big on Bud Light’s future, the 67-year-old billionaire who founded Microsoft in 1975, bought up the shares via his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust during the second quarter of 2023.

But so far that big dollar purchase is not working out.

Anheuser-Busch is still reeling from its short-lived relationship with Trans activist, Dylan Mulvaney which ignited an explosive backlash that ended in disaster.

Bud Light’s decision to showcase the Trans Tik Tok influencer on a special can spurred a Boycott Bud Light! online campaign, a video of Kid Rock shooting up a bunch of bud light beer cans that went viral, and a huge surge in online interest in the Samuel Adams Beer.

The initial Dylan Mulvaney announcement took place on April 1 (ironically April Fool’s Day) and in spite of Anheuser-Busch’s desperate efforts to put the matter to bed the brand has been experiencing serious sales declines ever since then.

And now, after 22 years as the nation’s #1 beer, Bud Light has been dethroned by Modelo Especial, a Mexican beer brand that’s part of the Anheuser-Busch family everywhere in the world except in the US, where it brewed south of the border by Constellation Brands who sell it in the US.

“Anheuser-Busch’s share price has slipped nearly 9% over the past six months, and it’s down over 3%, to $56.08, in the past five days,” according to the New York Post, “a result of a national boycott of Bud Light that has shown no signs of slowing down.”

Clearly Bill Gates is betting big that Bud Light and its producer Anheuser-Busch are set for a rebound and his $95 million investment in the Belgian-based global brewer speaks to that, but so far that investment has not paid off

“Gates acquired 1,703,000 million shares of AB InBev in the second quarter for nearly $100 million,” according to yahoo finance. ‘However, with AB InBev’s share price falling because of the recent controversy and declining sales in the U.S., Gates has lost over $6 million on his investment in the beer company.”

This is not Gates first foray into big beer investments.

In February Gates, the richest man in the world for 15 consecutive years from 1995 to 2010, and again from 2013 to 2017, purchased a $904 million stake in Heineken, despite admitting in the past he is “not a big beer drinker”.

“When I end up at something like a baseball game, I drink light beer to get with the vibe of all the other beer drinkers, he said in a 2018 interview with Reddit. ‘Sorry to disappoint real beer drinkers.”

###