The Richest Tech Billionaires in the World Today

Elon Musk, born on June 28, 1971, is a visionary entrepreneur, engineer, and inventor known for his groundbreaking work in electric vehicles, space exploration, and renewable energy. He is the CEO and lead designer of SpaceX, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc., founder of The Boring Company, and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI.

Musk's journey to success began when he co-founded Zip2, a software company, which was later sold for nearly $300 million. He then went on to co-found X.com, which eventually became PayPal, revolutionizing online payments. His relentless drive to push boundaries has led to numerous innovations, including the development of the Falcon rockets and the Tesla Roadster.

Named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, Musk continues to inspire millions with his ambitious vision for the future of humanity.

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, born on May 14, 1984, is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and currently serves as its chairman and CEO.

Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his dorm room at Harvard University on February 4, 2004. During the creation, development, and refinement of this social network, he was aided by fellow Harvard roommates and students such as Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. After successfully establishing and designing the platform, his team expanded Facebook to other universities, leading to rapid growth and reaching one billion users by 2011. Due to assistance from others, Zuckerberg faced various legal disputes brought forth by individuals claiming that a portion of the company's value was based on their contributions during Facebook's early stages and growth.

Since 2010, Time magazine has listed Zuckerberg among the 100 wealthiest and most influential people in the world as part of its Person of the Year award. In December 2016, Zuckerberg ranked 10th on Forbes' list of the World's Most Powerful People. With an estimated net worth of $67.3 billion, Mark Zuckerberg is currently the eighth richest tech billionaire in the world.

Michael Saul Dell, born on February 23, 1965, in Houston, Texas, is the founder and CEO of Dell Inc (founded on May 3, 1984). Dell is a leading global computer company with a revenue of $56.74 billion (2006). He currently serves as the chairman of Dell, with an annual salary of $3.4 million (2003), while the company's total value is $18 billion (2006).

While studying at school, he started a computer company called PC’s Limited in his dorm room at Dobie Center. The company became so successful that, with additional funding from his grandparents, Dell dropped out of college at the age of 19 to run PC’s Limited, which later became Dell Computer Corporation, eventually evolving into Dell Inc.

Contributions to Dell include being named 'Entrepreneur of the Year' by Inc. magazine; 'Person of the Year' by PC magazine; 'CEO of the Year' by Financial World magazine and Industry Week magazine. In a presentation to the Detroit Economic Club in November 1999, Dell defined the concept of '3C’s' of e-commerce (content, commerce, community) while discussing sales strategies for high-end customers via the Internet. As of now, Dell has a net worth of $55.1 billion.

Lawrence Joseph 'Larry' Ellison, born on August 17, 1944, is an American business magnate, co-founder, and CEO of Oracle Corporation, specializing in database management software. As of March 2019, he was listed by Forbes magazine as the third-richest person in the United States and the sixth-richest in the world, with a net worth of $62.5 billion, increasing from $58.5 billion in 2018 and as of October to $68 billion.

In the 1970s, after a brief stint at Amdahl Corporation, Ellison worked for Ampex Corporation. One of his projects was building a database for the CIA, which he named 'Oracle.' Ellison was inspired by Edgar F. Codd's paper on linked relational database systems titled 'A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks.' In 1977, he co-founded Software Development Laboratories (SDL) with two colleagues and an initial investment of $2,000; Ellison himself contributed $1,200. In 1979, the company was renamed Relational Software Inc, later renamed Oracle after its flagship product Oracle Database. He had heard about the IBM System R database, also based on Codd's theory, and wanted Oracle to be compatible with it, but this was not possible as IBM refused to share the code of System R. Oracle's first release was Oracle 2; there was no Oracle 1.

Oracle achieved great success during the technology revolution 4.0, as its software became widely adopted by most of the world's leading companies and corporations. As of now, Oracle remains the most widely used database management software brand globally. This has helped Larry Ellison amass a total net worth of $102.2 billion.

Steven Anthony Ballmer was born on March 24, 1956, in Detroit, Michigan. He is an American businessman and served as the CEO of Microsoft Corporation from January 2000. Ballmer became the first non-founder or non-family member employee of a company to become a billionaire based on stock options.

After graduating from Harvard University with degrees in mathematics and economics, Ballmer worked for two years at Procter & Gamble as a product manager before enrolling at Stanford Graduate School of Business to pursue a Master of Business Administration degree. He dropped out of Stanford a year later when Bill Gates convinced him to work at Microsoft. Ballmer became Microsoft's 24th employee in June 1980, the first business manager hired by Gates. Initially offered a salary of $50,000 along with company ownership. When Microsoft became a corporation in 1981, Ballmer owned 8% of the company.

While Gates retained management of technology aspects, Ballmer handled the financial side of the company. In 2003, Ballmer sold 8.3% of his shares, retaining only 4% ownership in the company. That same year, Ballmer revamped the employee stock program, creating employee millionaires through the stock grant program. Currently, Ballmer ranks seventh globally with a net worth of $91.4 billion.

Lawrence Edward 'Larry' Page was born on March 26, 1973, in Lansing, Michigan. He is an American entrepreneur, co-founder of the Google search engine along with Sergey Brin. Larry Page was born into a family with a tradition of scientific research. His father is a professor specializing in computer science and artificial intelligence. Larry's older brother is also a co-founder of eGroups, later sold to Yahoo! for around half a billion USD. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan and went on to pursue a master's degree at Stanford University. It was at Stanford where he met Sergey Brin, a like-minded friend interested in search engines. The two launched the Google search engine operating on the PageRank algorithm in 1998.

Larry Page served as CEO of Google from 1997 to August 2001. He then handed over the position to Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Novell. In April 2011, he returned to the role of Google's CEO after Eric Schmidt resigned. Larry Page held this position for over 4 years before handing it over to Sundar Pichai. In August 2015, he and his friend Sergey Brin founded Alphabet - the parent company overseeing Google and its subsidiaries. At Alphabet, he served as CEO, while Sergey Brin became the company's chairman.

In December 2019, Larry Page stepped down as CEO of Alphabet and handed over the position to Sundar Pichai. For many years, Larry received a symbolic salary of $1/year. Nevertheless, he remained among the world's richest alongside his friend Sergey Brin. As of April 2022, Page is the fourth richest person in the world, with a net worth of $111 billion.

Sergey Brin was born on August 21, 1973, in Moscow, Russia. He is an American entrepreneur of Jewish descent, and co-founder of Google along with Larry Page. Brin currently serves as the Technical Director of Google and has an estimated net worth of $107 billion, making him the fifth richest person in the world.

Sergey Brin attended Montessori school and later gained admission to the University of Maryland, specializing in computer science in 1990. With his inherent intelligence, he graduated from college with honors at the young age of 19. In 1995, he received his master's degree from Stanford University.

He is a renowned entrepreneur, often referred to as a computer genius. His name is synonymous with the title of co-founder of Google and the Technical Director of this world-leading technology company. Sergey Brin and Larry Page have made history by developing and innovating Google.

Jeffrey Preston Bezos, born on January 12, 1964, is an American entrepreneur, industrialist, media magnate, and investor. Bezos is known as the founder, CEO, and Chairman of the multinational technology company Amazon.

Bezos has been listed as the first 'Centibillionaire' (individuals with a net worth of at least $100 billion) according to Forbes, the world's richest person since 2017, and dubbed the 'Richest person in modern history' after his net worth surged to $150 billion in July 2018.

He is the visionary behind Amazon.com, an initially book-selling website that expanded into various other product categories. He played a pivotal role in revolutionizing e-commerce, making shopping easier and more convenient, enabling people to buy the goods they need with just a computer and an internet connection, all from the comfort of their homes. Amazon.com, becoming the largest online retailer on the World Wide Web, has amassed Jeff Bezos an enormous wealth. With a personal net worth of $171 billion, he has become the second richest tech billionaire in the world.

William Henry 'Bill' Gates III, born on October 28, 1955, is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, author, and chairman of Microsoft Corporation, the software company he co-founded with Paul Allen. He has consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest individuals and was the richest person in the world from 1995 to 2014, except for March 2013, March 2012, March 2011 (ranked 2nd), and 2008 when he was ranked third. In May 2013, Bill Gates reclaimed the title of the world's richest person.

Currently, he is the third richest person in the world with a total net worth of 129 billion USD. At Microsoft, Gates served as CEO and chief software architect. He was the largest individual shareholder of Microsoft until May 2014. He is also the author and co-author of several books.

After being surpassed by Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates slipped to the position of the world's second richest person. Perhaps Bill Gates is the most famous billionaire since the late 20th century, early 21st century. Bill Gates held the title of the world's richest person from 1995 to 2007. After stepping down as CEO in 2002, Bill Gates officially resigned from his position as chairman of the board of Microsoft in 2014. Not only a successful businessman, Bill Gates is also a renowned philanthropist. Many believe that if he hadn't devoted so much wealth to charity, Bill Gates' net worth would certainly be many times higher than it is now.

Elon Musk is an engineer, industrial designer, inventor, technology entrepreneur, and philanthropist of American and South African descent. He is also a citizen of both South Africa and Canada. Musk is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer/designer of SpaceX, the initial investor, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, the co-founder of The Boring Company, the co-founder of Neuralink, and the co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018. In December 2016, he was ranked 21st on Forbes' list of the World's Most Powerful People and was ranked first on Forbes' list of the most innovative leaders in 2019. As of January 7, 2021, his net worth is estimated to be around 219 billion USD, and he is ranked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes THE WORLD'S REAL-TIME BILLIONAIRES as the richest person in the world. He holds the longest CEO tenure of any automotive manufacturer globally.

In addition to pursuing his core business ventures, Musk has envisioned a high-speed transportation system called the Hyperloop. Musk has stated that the goals of SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity revolve around his vision of 'changing the world and helping humanity.' His goals include reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, and mitigating the risk of human extinction by establishing a human colony on Mars.