A survey released by Forbes today showed that America’s tech sector continues to be a driving force for the world’s billionaires.
Chief among the world’s richest tech geeks is Bill Gates, who ranked second among the world’s richest individuals.
Bill Gates is the richest person in the global technology sector. (Image via: buzzreactor.com)
Gates’ fortune rose from $6 billion to $67 billion this past year. The magazine attributed this tremendous rise to his private equity and holdings, not Microsoft alone.
Regardless of how he made the money, Gates’ rise in fortune put him way ahead of the second richest tech billionaire, Oracle found Larry Ellison, whose personal net worth was calculated at $43 billion. That was good enough for number five overall on the World’s Billionaires list.
Also making an appearance is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who was number 19 overall list and number three in the tech sector with a value of $25.2 billion. Google’s chief executive Larry Page and co-founder Sergei Brin were right there next to Bezos, worth $23 billion and $22.8 billion, respectively.
Michael Dell made the list, too, despite his company’s many recent problems. He has a fortune worth $15.3 billion, good for sixth among tech billionaires.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was seventh with $15.2 billion, followed by co-founder of the software firm, Paul Allen, with $15 billion.
Worth noting on this list: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. He ranked ninth at $13.3 billion, though just last year his personal fortune was estimated to be $17.5 billion. A majority of his losses can be attributed to his company’s public offering, which at one point brought him down to $9.4 billion. Lucky for him (and the company), shares have since rebounded.
Tenth among tech billionaires is Indian software tycoon Azim Premji, who ranks number one in terms of wealthiest non-Americans (getting really granular with this list breakdown). He made his fortunes after inheriting a cooking oil company and transforming it into India’s third biggest outsourcing services firm, Wirpro. Forbes estimates Premji’s net worth to be about $11.2 billion, which is amazing considering the fact that just last month he donated $2.3 billion to an education charity. Reportedly, this donation is the biggest charitable donation in the country’s recent history.
Rounding out the top fifteen tech billionaires: the family of Laureen Powell Jobs, widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, at $10.7 billion; Hasso Plattner, co-founder of German software firm SAP, with $8.9 billion; Pierre Omidyar, eBay’s founder, at $8.7 billion; Google chairman Eric Schmidt with $8.2 billion; and James Goodnight of analytics firm SAS fame, at $7.7 billion.
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