Bill Gates buys $95 million of shares in Bud Light's company as he anticipates a big comeback
Topics: Bill Gates, Dylan Mulvaney
Stewart Perrie
Featured Image Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME. Instagram / Dylan Mulvaney.
Topics: Bill Gates, Dylan Mulvaney
It seems as though Bill Gates is anticipating Bud Light will soon make a big comeback after it lost its place as America's number one beer.
The iconic beverage has been rocked by controversy this year after it partnered with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The collaboration angered many of the beer's right-leaning customers as they questioned what the two have in common.
Many announced boycotts and elaborate stunts showing how much they suddenly hated Bud Light.
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It only took a few days for Bud's parent company Anheuser-Busch to lose a whopping $5 billion (£4 billion) as a result of the backlash.
A few months went by and Bud Light fell off the top spot and was overtaken by Modelo Especial - a beer owned by Grupo Modelo - as America's favorite beer.
By this time, the share price of Anheuser-Busch had fallen from a 2023 high of €61.33 at the end of March to €49.91 at the end of May.
The share price has rallied and fallen since then and it looks like Bill Gates is backing the brand.
TipRanks revealed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust has bought a whopping 1.7 million shares, which works out to cost around $95 million.
Despite revealing in a 2018 Reddit post that he's not much of a 'beer drinker', this isn't his first buyout of a major alcohol brand.
In February this year, he bought a 3.76 per cent stake in Heineken Holding NV when he bought a whopping 10.8 million shares.
According to The New York Post, this acquisition cost him an eye-watering $939.87 million.
That came 14 years before he invested $392 million in a stake of FEMSA, a Mexican multinational beverage and retail company.
Their brewery was sold to Heineken in 2010.
But hey, you don't have to like beer to invest in it.
Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth has been tight-lipped on whether Bud Light will partner with Mulvaney or a trans influencer in the future.
During an appearance on CBS Mornings he spoke about wanting to 'understand the consumer' better.