In the last decades, one of the most successful sectors in the business world is technology. This is reflected in the bank accounts of executives and industry creators, who often appear on lists of the richest people in the world.
Bill Gates, for example, founder of Microsoft, is at the top of it, according to the latest ranking published by Business Insider magazine , developed in partnership with the Asian consultancy Wealth X, which recently released a report on the 50 richest people on the planet.
Gates has already reached the post for some time and it’s no surprise he stays there – so who else in the tech world is on the list?
The first thing that strikes you when you look at the ranking is that all the members are men. And everyone is American or Chinese.
To get on the list, you need to have a fortune of at least $ 18 billion net, including cash, stocks and other equity.
“Some of them spend their time trying to change the world, others buying their own sports equipment, others launching space rockets and others running the company that makes them rich,” says Business Insider .
Here’s the list, starting with the lucky ones.
1 – Bill Gates (the richest in the world)
- Net capital: US $ 89.4 billion
- Age: 60 years old
- Country: United States
- Source of Wealth: Microsoft
Bill Gates is not only the richest person in the United States, but the richest person on the planet. He started making money early. At 30, Microsoft has already made it a billionaire. He left the company in 2000, and although he is on the board of directors, he dedicates most of his time to philanthropy.
2 – Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon)
- Net capital: US $ 51.2 billion
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- Age 52 years old
- Country: United States
- Source of wealth: Amazon
Bezos had a humble origin. Started in a garage (just like Steve Jobs) trying to idealize a way on how to sell things over the internet. First were books and now he sells, literally, anything on his page, one of the most accessed in the world.
But that is not all. He also owns the Washington Post and the Blue Origin aerospace company.
Its versatility in business can be proven by Amazon itself, which is far from just a buying and selling site. The last big news of the company was Amazon Music, service to listen to music in streaming.
3 – Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
- Net capital: US $ 46.2 billion
- Age 31 years old
- Country: United States
- Source of wealth: Facebook
The story of the creator of Facebook is the definition of success. At age 31, he is one of the richest (and most admired) people in the world.
It all started when he was still at Harvard in the United States. Zuckerberg created a kind of social network, where men and women from college could name who were the most “pretty”. The network exploded and overwhelmed the Harvard server, who took it off the air.
After that, in February 2004, he ended up joining other friends and creating the social network that exists today – the most successful in the world.
From then on, his fortune did not stop growing. But he does not just live to run the company nowadays. Zuckerberg is known for philanthropic actions: he has donated large sums of money to social causes, such as fighting ebola and improving education.
4 – Larry Ellison (owner of Oracle)
- capital: US $ 46.1 billion
- Age 71 years old
- Country: United States
- Source of Wealth: Oracle
Larry Ellison is the co-founder of Oracle, one of the largest software companies in the world – although not everyone is aware of it, since the main customers are companies and governments. The company’s specialty is to develop hardware and database software.
According to Business Insider , Ellison has become one of the highest paid CEOs in the world. He has an island in Hawaii and was very close to Steve Jobs (1955-2011), founder of Apple.
5 – Larry Page (owner of half of Google)
- Net capital: US $ 37.8 billion
- Age 42 years old
- Country: United States
- Source of wealth: Google
Larry Page is one of Google’s co-founders and the CEO of Alphabet, the multinational that encompasses the search giant. He is responsible for the search engine algorithm. In 2011, he was considered one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine .
6 – Sergey Brin (owner of the other half of Google)
- Net capital: US $ 36.2 billion
- Age 42 years old
- Country: United States
- Source of wealth: Google
Google’s other founder, Sergey Brin, is the president of the company he founded along with Page in the late 1990s.
Among the projects of Brin stand out plans to disseminate wireless connection by rural communities.
7 – Jack Ma (Alibaba)
- Net capital: US $ 26.3 billion
- Age 51 years old
- Country: China
- Source of wealth: Alibaba
His name is not so well-known in the West, but as the creators of this list explain, he is “Jeff Bezos of China.” That’s because the company he created is the biggest buying and selling site for the Asian giant.
8 – Steve Ballmer (from Microsoft to basketball)
- Net capital: US $ 25.9 billion
- Age: 59 years old
- Country: United States
- Source of wealth: Microsoft
Steve Ballmer is the largest single shareholder of Microsoft. He left a business school in Stanford in the 1980s to join his friend Bill Gates during his first steps at Microsoft.
Nowadays, however, he does not run the company anymore – his focus now is on sports. In 2014, Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers, the NBA’s basketball team, and since then that administration is his main business.
9 – Michael Dell (founder of Dell)
- Net capital: US $ 18.9 billion
- Age 51 years old
- Country: United States
- Source of Wealth: Dell
During his undergraduate years at the University of Texas, Michael Dell began his entrepreneurial career at a company called PC Ltda, predecessor to what is now Dell, a computer maker. In a short time, he switched lessons through the office full time.
His technology company started to grow. And now it employs 100,000 people around the world.
10 – Pony Ma (Tencent, the giant of China)
- Net capital: US $ 18.2 billion
- Age 44 years old
- Country: China
- Source of wealth: Tencent Holdings
Pony Ma is the man behind China’s biggest technology company: Tencent Holdings, founded by him with college friends.
Its expansion has been enormous and has already made Pony Ma the fifth richest man in China. The company’s focus is the development of software and internet applications – the first to succeed in the Chinese market was an instant messaging program similar to the famous ICQ, popular in Brazil in the 1990s.
Today, the company encompasses various industries, from music to video games and social networks.
Source: Forbes List
