Simu Liu introduced Bill Gates to bubble tea at the TIME 100 most influential people gala

By now you might be familiar with the image of Bill Gates drinking bubble tea at the Time 100 Gala, but you might not realize that Canadian actor Simu Liu was responsible for creating the viral moment.

"I just honestly don't know what billionaires drink. I'm assuming some sort of liquid NFT or Web 3 beverage," Liu said to Gates. "Don't forget to chew."

"I think he likes it!" Liu exclaimed after Gates took a sip.

This pic of Bill Gates drinking bubble tea is sending me over the edge pic.twitter.com/WWpyi1sevx

— Emily (@emilybernay) June 9, 2022

"And that, folks, is how you network at the Time 1oo!" Liu said, adding, "I can't believe I just did that."

Okay Simu Liu & Bill Gates drinking bubble tea was not something I thought I’d see pic.twitter.com/9hsKJAONrq

— ✨ (@SpideyMiles22) June 13, 2022

Liu was the host of the gala, and it was just one of many moments where he won over major movers and shakers with humour.

"It will go down as one of the single most impactful days of my life… and that's not just because I helped introduce @thisisbillgates to boba," Liu wrote in a caption to a post on Instagram.

Bill Gates also had a response to the moment on social media, saying he's added bubble tea to his list of favourite drinks "after Diet Coke of course."

Thanks to @SimuLiu, @BillGates has announced that bubble tea is now among his favourite drinks—second to diet coke, of course. pic.twitter.com/ZLKE89KeGp

— The RepresentASIAN Project™ (@repasianproject) June 10, 2022

Of course it was a pre-planned moment, but if you're a big Simu Liu fan you might have suspected the moment was going down as he tweeted about possibly getting bubble tea for Bill Gates back in May.

Hey world! Excited to be hosting the #Time100 Gala which for the first time EVER will be broadcast on @abc. I'll see you June 12th.

On a related note, do you guys think Bill Gates would like bubble tea if I got some for him on the day? https://t.co/sgzuDIIZRm

— Simu Liu (刘思慕) (@SimuLiu) May 26, 2022

However, some people are wondering if he actually likes the boba pearls themselves as his straw seems to be high enough to avoid them in the photo.

Simu Liu has been winning people over a lot lately, making a moving speech at the Junos.