He&#x27;s not in charge of, but still holds at least $12bn of MS stock, on which a lot of his wealth is leveraged and predicated, which would certainly give him a vested interest in defending microsoft&#x27;s interests, which are the government&#x27;s interests.<p>You may well be right however that the circle he runs in has influenced his stance on this too, however he has historically taken a pro-government anti-knowledge stance - see <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rollingstone.com&#x2F;culture&#x2F;news&#x2F;bill-gates-the-rolling-stone-interview-20140313?page=2" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rollingstone.com&#x2F;culture&#x2F;news&#x2F;bill-gates-the-roll...</a> for instance in which he trots out the &quot;Snowden is a traitor who needs to come home for a fair trial&quot; rhetoric.