10 Richest People in Tech
It's no secret that our lives are greatly affected by technology. It's also no secret that being a trailblazer in the tech industry has its rewards.
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These trailblazers have been recognized over the years for making world-changing moves in the tech industry throughout their careers, from creating the first commercially used operating system to founding search engines that are still widely popular to this day. Here are the 10 current richest people in tech.
Jeff Bezos
Net Worth: $141.4 billion
Bezos founded Amazon in 1994. He saw the potential that the internet had for commerce and started Amazon out of his garage in Seattle after quitting his job at an investment bank. It was originally an online bookstore, but began selling other media like CDs and videos. Amazon made its way to fame as a pioneer and leader in e-commerce and still upholds that title today.
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Bill Gates
Net worth: $103.1 billion
Gates has been proficient in tech since childhood, creating his first software program at age 13. Later on in life after creating the BASIC software for microcomputers with his partner Paul G. Allen, Gates dropped out of Harvard his junior year and created Microsoft with Allen in 1975. He also created MS-DOS, which was the first operating system for the first personal computers in 1980.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Larry Page's Net worth: $86.6 billion
Sergey Brin's Net worth: $83.1 billion
Page went to Stanford's graduate program and created the search engine Google in 1998 from his dorm with fellow student Sergey Brin. Their creation received $25 million in venture capital the next year and soared in popularity. By 2004, the site was processing 200 million searches a day.
Larry Ellison
Net worth: $89.8 billion
In 1977, Ellison joined with fellow software developers Bob Miner and Ed Oates to create Software Development Laboratories (SDL). They were commissioned by the CIA to create a commercial database that allowed for large amounts of data to be stored with efficient retrieval of said data. In '79 they achieved this and called it Oracle, which ended up being one of the largest database management companies in the world.
Steve Ballmer
Net worth: $78.8 billion
Ballmer joined Bill Gates in his ventures with Microsoft as the company's business manager. Over the following 20 years, he climbed up the ladder at Microsoft and eventually became its CEO from 2000 to 2014. Products like Xbox and Zune were created under his direction, along with deals like the acquisition of Skype in 2011.
Mark Zuckerberg
Net worth: $51.2 billion
In 2004, Zuckerberg and a small group of fellow Harvard students created Facebook, a popular social network that would later go on to help bring connectivity to the world. At first it was only meant for students. Within the first two weeks of its creation, however, half of the student body of Harvard had made a profile. By 2006, anyone with an email address was able to join Facebook and it took the world by storm.
Michael Dell
Net worth: $48.1 billion
While attending the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, Dell started a computer business with $1,000 in startup capital. After earning around $80,000 from sales by the second half of his freshman year, he dropped out at age 19 to work on this company. PCs Limited later became Dell Inc., and by 2007, it expanded to selling corporate software and other computer products in addition to its line of computers.
Ma Huateng
Net worth: $30.5 billion
In 1998 while working in research and development for China Motion Telecom Development Ltd., Huateng and a group of his friends founded Tencent, a technology and entertainment conglomerate. It offers "online lifestyle services" like instant messaging, e-commerce, gaming and social networks, to name a few. By 2015, Tencent was one of the most popular sites in the world due to its successful social networks like Qzone and WeChat.
Shiv Nadar
Net worth: $21.8 billion
In 1976, Nadar founded Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) out of his garage where he originally made calculators and microprocessors. Over the years, HCL became one of India's biggest software service providers. Eventually Nadar would step down as chairman of the company in 2020 and give the company's direction over to his daughter Roshni Nadar Malhotra.
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Disclaimer: All net worths were sourced from Forbes and current as of Sept. 28, 2022.
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 10 Richest People in Tech
