Here are the billionaires who got super-rich through technology
Forbes has listed the world’s 100 richest people in technology – its first-ever ranking of individuals solely working in tech.
For its list, Forbes excluded individuals working in media and telecoms, focusing on people active in hardware, software, social media, online gambling, and high-tech manufacturing.
Together, the world’s 100 richest tech billionaires are worth $842.9 billion (R10.76 trillion), with the top 10 accounting for just over 40% of the amount ($343.5 billion).
The world’s richest man, Bill Gates, with an estimated net worth of $79.2 billion (R1.01 trillion), is unsurprisingly also the richest person in technology.
According to Forbes, even though Gates left Microsoft in 2014, he still sells shares in the software giant, which now accounts for 13% of his estimated fortune.
Bill gates
Another billionaire who’s no longer in charge of the company he founded is Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who with an estimate net worth of $54.3 billion, is the second richest man in tech.
Ellison left his position as CEO of Oracle in 2014, but remains chairman and CTO of the company.
Moving away from the long-time leaders of tech, the top executives also have strong showing from “new” tech leaders – particularly Internet companies.
This includes Amazon.com chief executive Jeff Bezos (3rd), Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg (4th) and Google’s leaders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin (5th and 6th, respectively).
20 richest people in tech
| # | Name | Company | Est. net worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Gates | Microsoft | $79.2 billion |
| 2 | Larry Ellison | Oracle | $54.3 billion |
| 3 | Jeff Bezos | Amazon | $34.8 billion |
| 4 | Mark Zuckerberg | $33.4 billion | |
| 5 | Larry Page | $29.7 billion | |
| 6 | Sergey Brin | $29.2 billion | |
| 7 | Jack Ma | Alibaba | $22.7 billion |
| 8 | Steve Ballmer | Microsoft | $21.5 billion |
| 9 | Laurene Powell Jobs | Apple | $19.5 billion |
| 10 | Michael Dell | Dell | $19.2 billion |
| 11 | Azim Premji | Wipro | $19.1 billion |
| 12 | Paul Allen | Microsoft | $17.5 billion |
| 13 | Pony Ma | Tencent | $16.1 billion |
| 14 | Robin Li | Baidu | $15.3 billion |
| 15 | Shiv Nadar | HCL Technologies | $14.8 billion |
| 16 | Lei Jun | Xiaomi | $13.2 billion |
| 17 | Hasso Plattner | SAP | $9.1 billion |
| 18 | Eric Schmidt | $9.1 billion | |
| 19 | Hiroshi Mikitani | Rakuten | $8.7 billion |
| 20 | Klaus Tschira | SAP | $8.6 billion |
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