Bill Gates has sold $940 million U.S. of Canadian National Railway (CNR) stock, trimming his

stake in the railroad operator to 9%.

Cascade Investment, the firm that controls Gates’ $117 billion U.S. personal fortune, unloaded

roughly 12% of its shares in Montreal-based CN Rail between April 27 and May 12, leaving it

with a stake of about 9% or $6.8 billion U.S., according to a Securities and Exchange

Commission (SEC) filing.

Cascade Investment has been reducing its ownership of the Canadian railway since May 2021,

when it still owned roughly 13% of the company. One of Cascade’s investment managers,

Justin Howell, has served on CN Rail’s board of directors since last year.

Canadian National shares have fallen 8% this year to trade at $142.92 after rising steadily from

pandemic-era lows in March 2020.

Kirkland, Washington-based Cascade Investment also owns a $14.1 billion U.S. stake in

Republic Services (RSG), a waste-management company, as well as $9.7 billion U.S. of Deere

& Co. (DE) stock. Cascade’s largest holding is $26.9 billion U.S. worth of shares in Microsoft

(MSFT), the software company that Bill Gates founded.

Gates, age 66, is the world’s fourth-richest person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires

Index. Gates’s former wife, Melinda Gates, age 57, received stock of companies including CN

Rail, from Cascade Investment after the couple announced their divorce last year. She’s since

sold a large portion of her railway holding, including $467 million U.S. of shares last December.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Charitable Foundation also sold $180 million U.S. worth of CN Rail

stock since late April, reducing its stake in the company to less than 2%, according to SEC

regulatory filings.