--- title: Harvard Dropout Mark Zuckerberg Harvard Speech VIDEO description: Watch Bill Gates give Mark Zuckerberg advice about delivering the 2017 commencement address at Harvard later this spring. canonical: https://time.com/4694029/mark-zuckerberg-bill-gates-harvard-2017/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-07T20:07:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:41:42.305Z og:title: Watch Harvard BFFs Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates Ham It Up og:description: The Facebook founder will deliver the college's commencement speech this spring. og:url: https://time.com/4694029/mark-zuckerberg-bill-gates-harvard-2017/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Harvard BFFs Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates Ham It Up twitter:description: The Facebook founder will deliver the college's commencement speech this spring. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Harvard Dropout BFFs Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates Ham It Up > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=210e071d-d883-411d-b02f-aa9b577bd803&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 7, 2017 8:07 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 7, 2017 8:07 PM UTC Mark Zuckerberg may have [famously dropped out of Harvard](http://time.com/4566510/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-buisnessperson-year-fortune-2016/) to build his social media juggernaut of a company, but it looks like the Ivy League institution wants him back—and he’s willing to take another shot at time on campus. That is, Harvard has invited Facebook’s founder to deliver the spring’s commencement address, an opportunity previously bequeathed to fellow dropout (and tech mogul billionaire) Bill Gates [back in 2007](http://www.harvard.edu/on-campus/commencement/commencement-day-speakers). In a new video shared on Facebook (of course), Zuckerberg and Gates appear to be casually hanging out when Zuckerberg gets the news and delivers his best shocked reaction. They then start chatting about the honor—and its related perks. Gates also assures Zuckerberg he’ll help him work on the address. Zuckerberg follows in the footsteps of luminaries like [Steven Spielberg](http://motto.time.com/4351287/steven-spielberg-grad-speech/), Michael Bloomberg, Oprah Winfrey, and J.K. Rowling, whose [iconic speech](http://motto.time.com/4421601/jk-rowling-inspirational-quotes/) remains in circulation years later. Watch the two chummily ham it up for the audience as they spread the news in this hilarious video below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4694029/mark-zuckerberg-bill-gates-harvard-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4694029/mark-zuckerberg-bill-gates-harvard-2017/"},"headline":"Watch Harvard Dropout BFFs Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates Ham It Up","datePublished":"2017-03-07T20:07:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:41:42.305Z","description":"The Facebook founder will deliver the college's commencement speech this spring.","url":"https://time.com/4694029/mark-zuckerberg-bill-gates-harvard-2017/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet","Education","celebrities","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4694029/mark-zuckerberg-bill-gates-harvard-2017/","name":"Watch Harvard Dropout BFFs Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates Ham It Up"}}]}] ```