Nearly a third of the 30 richest billionaires on the recently relaunched Bloomberg Billionaires Index have one major thing in common: They earned their fortunes in technology.
That includes Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who retains his title as the richest man in the world, as well as Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Though US moguls dominate the world of tech billionaires, China's Jack Ma of Alibaba and Pony Ma of Tencent also earn spots in the top nine.
Tech money proves to be hard-earned as well: All nine of the richest billionaires are self-made, thanks to the powerful companies they built themselves, including Facebook, Microsoft, and Google.
For the ranking, Business Insider culled data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of March 1, when the index relaunched in its expanded format. The index updates daily to provide up-to-the-minute data on the world's wealthiest men and women. You can read the full methodology here.
Below, read on to see the nine richest billionaires who made their fortunes in tech.
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9. Ma Huateng
Net worth: $22.5 billion
Age: 45
Country: China
Industry: Technology
Source of wealth: Self-made; Tencent Holdings
Software engineer Ma Huateng (aka Pony Ma) founded China's largest internet portal, Tencent Holdings, in 1998. He was 26. Ma's company has a number of successful and widely used platforms in its portfolio, including QQ, its instant-messaging service, which is one of the world's 10 largest websites; a mobile-texting service (WeChat) with over 800 million users; a mobile-commerce product (WeChat Wallet); and an online-gaming community (Tencent Games), the largest in China.
Ma's wealth has increased by $4.7 billion in the past year.
8. Steve Ballmer
Net worth: $27 billion
Age: 60
Country: US
Industry: Technology
Source of wealth: Self-made; Microsoft
Steve Ballmer dropped out of business school at Stanford in 1980 to join Harvard friend Bill Gates at Microsoft as the company's first business manager, earning a $50,000 salary and a stake in the company. During his tenure, Ballmer held positions as vice president of marketing, vice president of systems software, and executive vice president of sales and support, and was often referred to as "the numbers guy."
He became CEO of the company in 2000 after Gates stepped down, and he remained in charge of the software giant until Satya Nadella replaced him in 2014. While running Microsoft, the company's revenue grew by 294% and profits by 181% — although its market share was surpassed by Google and Apple during the same period. Still, the early stake Ballmer acquired in the company made him immensely wealthy.
After stepping down as CEO, Ballmer fulfilled his dream of owning an NBA franchise, paying $2 billion in a deal to buy the Los Angeles Clippers, now his main venture.
Ballmer's net worth has increased $4.8 billion in the last year.
7. Jack Ma
Net worth: $35.7 billion
Age: 52
Country: China
Industry: Technology
Source of wealth: Self-made; Alibaba
The richest person in China, Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma reportedly started China's first internet company in 1988: China Yellowpages. He lost control of that company to a state-owned telecom in 1996 and started Alibaba three years later with just $60,000. Fifteen years after its inception, the e-commerce company broke records with a $25 billion initial public offering — the world's largest ever.
Post-IPO, however, Alibaba's good fortune began to slip. The company's shares dropped 22% in 2015, most likely because of China's slowing economy and concerns over counterfeiters using the company's platform. Ma didn't worry, though. He acknowledged that 2016 would be a trying time for the Chinese economy, but remained confident in Alibaba's long-term success.
Ma's wealth has increased by $8.4 billion over the past year.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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