Gates Foundation Trust Q1: $31.67B Barbell

TL;DR: Gates Foundation Trust's 2026Q1 13F is a $31.67B endowment-style public-equity book built around durable cash generators, not a market-cap index. The first screen is Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, Canadian National Railway, Caterpillar and Deere, with only 16.77% left in the chart's Other bucket after the top five holdings.

The Trust's Form 13F-HR for report date 2026-03-31, filed 2026-05-15 under accession 0001104659-26-062592, shows 22 positions and a WhaleScore of 87.75. That makes the filing useful less as a trading tape and more as a window into how a philanthropic endowment vehicle keeps public-market exposure aligned with long-duration obligations.

That distinction matters. Gates Foundation Trust is the investment vehicle tied to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the foundation's own public materials describe the Trust as the vehicle that manages investment assets for charitable goals. In 13F terms, though, the Q1 signal is narrower and cleaner: a concentrated public-equity sleeve where infrastructure, waste, rail, machinery and quality compounders dominate.

The hook: a $31.67B book with an infrastructure spine

The strongest data point is not simply the $31.67B reported 13F value. It is the shape of the book. Gates Foundation Trust's filing page shows a portfolio that begins with Berkshire Hathaway at $8.17B and 25.80%, then Waste Management at $6.35B and 20.06%, then Canadian National Railway at $5.33B and 16.82%.

That sequence is unusual for a high-profile endowment vehicle. The Trust is not leaning on a mega-cap software basket in this quarter. It is expressing a long-duration preference for businesses tied to capital allocation, essential services, freight infrastructure, industrial equipment and agriculture equipment.

The top-eight chart makes the point visually. Berkshire is the capital-allocation anchor. Waste Management and Canadian National Railway create the essential-services and freight spine. Caterpillar and Deere add industrial and agriculture machinery exposure, while Ecolab, Walmart and FedEx fill out the defensive operating-company layer.

Concentration is the message, not a footnote

For a retail investor scanning 13Fs, the temptation is to treat Gates Foundation Trust like another large institutional filer. That misses the endowment profile. This filing is deliberately concentrated: Berkshire alone is 25.80%, and Waste Management alone is 20.06%. Canadian National Railway and Caterpillar also sit at double-digit weights.

The chart's Other bucket is 16.77%, which means the filing is not trying to diversify away the top ideas. It is letting a short list carry the public-equity signal. That is closer to an endowment conviction book than a broad-market replication exercise.

Read the top five as a portfolio design rather than a ticker list. Berkshire supplies capital discipline. Waste Management and Canadian National Railway map to durable network assets. Caterpillar and Deere introduce cyclical exposure, but to machinery franchises with links to construction, infrastructure and agriculture.

The Q1 reset: smaller, still highly intentional

The history chart shows the current $31.67B value after $35.36B in 2025Q4 and $47.78B in 2025Q2. The latest history entry marks a -10.4% quarter-over-quarter move and 22 holdings. That decline did not make the book more diffuse; it left the Trust with an even clearer set of public-equity priorities.

The $8.02B entry in 2025Q3 is an outlier in the recent sequence, followed by $35.36B in 2025Q4. For this article, the safer interpretation is not to invent a transaction story around that discontinuity. The verified reading is that the latest available 2026Q1 filing sits at $31.67B, with the current holdings concentrated in the names above.

This is also why the article should not frame the Trust as passive. Its filer type is currently unclassified in the platform data, but the portfolio shape is active, endowment-like and thematically biased. The public-equity sleeve is not following sector weights; it is favoring resilient operating assets that can plausibly sit behind long-term grant-making needs.

What changed in the investable story

The most important change is interpretive: Gates Foundation Trust's Q1 2026 public-equity footprint looks less like a technology-growth book and more like a real-economy durability book. The leading holdings point toward capital compounding, waste services, freight rail, machinery, agriculture and industrial efficiency.

That divergence matters for readers who track institutional moves as signals. A hedge fund concentration can mean near-term alpha pursuit. A passive index fund concentration can mean nothing more than benchmark exposure. Gates Foundation Trust sits in a different lane: the Trust's public-market holdings appear designed for long holding periods, liquidity and mission-adjacent resilience.

The practical takeaway is straightforward. If you follow Gates Foundation Trust on 13F Insight, watch whether WM remains a core holding, whether CNI keeps its rail-infrastructure role, and whether the machinery sleeve in CAT and DE stays paired with Berkshire's capital-allocation anchor.

FAQ

What does Gates Foundation Trust hold in Q1 2026?

Gates Foundation Trust holds 22 positions in its 2026Q1 13F, led by BRK/B at $8.17B, WM at $6.35B, CNI at $5.33B, CAT at $4.50B and DE at $2.00B.

How large is Gates Foundation Trust's 2026Q1 13F portfolio?

Gates Foundation Trust reports a $31.67B 13F value for 2026Q1, based on the filing with report date 2026-03-31.

Is Gates Foundation Trust a passive index fund?

No. The platform has no passive filer classification for Gates Foundation Trust, and the 2026Q1 holdings show a concentrated endowment-style portfolio rather than broad index replication.

Why is Waste Management important in Gates Foundation Trust's portfolio?

Waste Management is the second-largest 2026Q1 holding at $6.35B and 20.06%, making it a core part of the Trust's essential-services exposure.