The old adage that the rich just keep getting richer is certainly true for the world’s wealthiest tech billionaires this year. In the race to be the world’s richest tech billionaire, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg are closing in on frontrunner Bill Gates as their fortunes increase by $15billion each.It comes as no surprise that Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, still holds the top spot with his fortune amassing $84.5billion, marking the Harvard dropout’s 18th time as the world’s richest billionaire.
Bill Gates remains the richest tech billionaire in the world, fighting off competition from Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, who was briefly the world’s wealthiest person following a surge in the online retailer’s share price in July.
Mr Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, the US tech company, is worth $84.5bn, slightly ahead of Mr Bezos with $81.7bn, according to the 2017 Forbes 100 Richest in Tech list. Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, is third with $69.6bn – almost $16bn richer than a year ago.
The total worth of the world’s 100 richest tech billionaires has surpassed $1tn for the first time, according to Forbes, a rise of 21 per cent in the space of just 12 months.
Asian billionaires continue to rise up the ranks. Ma Huateng – also known as Pony Ma – chief executive of Tencent, the Chinese social media group, is the third largest riser, aside from Mr Zuckerberg and Mr Bezos, with a gain of $14.7bn over the past year.
Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, the Chinese online retailer, is named as Asia’s richest tech billionaire with an estimated £37.4bn fortune, a rise of $11.6bn since last year. Of the top 100 richest, 50 are US citizens, including eight of the top 10 most wealthy. Thirty-three are from Asia, with half living in China or Hong Kong. Conversely, Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi, the smartphone manufacturer, was the list’s biggest dollar loser, seeing $2.9bn shaved off his net worth
According To The 2017 Forbes Top 100 Richest People In Tech :
1. Bill Gates : Cofounder, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
2. Jeff Bezos : CEO and Founder, Amazon.com
3. Mark Zuckerberg : Cofounder, Chairman and CEO, Facebook
4. Larry Ellison : CEO and Founder, Oracle
5. Larry Page : CEO, Alphabet
6. Sergey Brin : President, Alphabet
7. Jack Ma : Founder and Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group
8. Ma Huateng : Chairman and CEO, Tencent Holdings
9. Steve Ballmer : CEO, Microsoft
10. Michael Dell : Chairman and CEO, Dell
11. Masayoshi Son : CEO, Softbank
12. Elon Musk : CEO and Chairman, Tesla
13. Paul Allen : NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers
14. Lee Kun-Hee : Chairman, Samsung Electronics
15. Azim Premji : Chairman, Wipro Limited (ADR)
16. William Ding : Founder and CEO, Netease
17. Robin Li : Founder and CEO, Baidu
18. Shiv Nadar : cofounder HCL
19. Dustin Moskovitz : CEO and Cofounder, Asana
20. Hasso Plattner & family : chairman of the SAP
21. Zhang Zhidong : Cofounder, Tencent Holdings
22. Eric Schmidt : Executive Chairman, Google
23. Terry Gou : CEO, Hon Hai Precision
24. Dietmar Hopp & family : German software company SAP
25. Liu Qiangdong : Founder and CEO, JD.com
26. Zhou Qunfei : Founder and CEO, Lens Technology
27. Eduardo Saverin : Cofounder, Facebook
28. Jan Koum : CEO, cofounder, WhatsApp Inc.
29. Pierre Omidyar : Founder, eBay
30. James Goodnight : CEO, SAS Institute
31. Joseph Tsai : vice chairman and cofounder of Alibaba Group
32. Pan Zhengmin & family : cofounders of China’s AAC Technologies
33. David Duffield : Chairman and Cofounder, Workday
34. Hiroshi Mikitani : founder and CEO of Rakuten
35. Gordon Moore : Cofounder and Chairman Emeritus, Intel
36. Jay Y. Lee : Vice Chairman, Samsung Electronics
37. Lei Jun : Founder and CEO, Xiaomi
38. Brian Acton : Cofounder, WhatsApp Inc.
39. Kwon Hyuk-Bin : Smilegate Holdings
40. John Doerr : General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
41. David Sun : COO, Kingston Technology Corporation
42. John Tu : President, Kingston Technology Corporation
43. Gabe Newell : Cofounder and CEO, Valve Corporation
44. Andreas von Bechtolsheim & family : Cofounder, Chief Development Officer and Chairman, Arista Networks
45. Yeung Kin-man : founder and chief executive of Biel Crystal Manufactory
46. Ralph Dommermuth : leads United Internet AG
47. Lam Wai Ying : founder and chief executive of Biel Crystal Manufactory
48. Garrett Camp : Cofounder and Chairman, Uber Technologies Inc.
49. Travis Kalanick : Cofounder and CEO, Uber Technologies Inc.
50. David Cheriton : Professor, Stanford University
51. Fu Liquan : Zhejiang Dahua Technology
52. Kim Jung-Ju : Nexon
53. David Filo : Chief Yahoo, Yahoo!
54. Lin Xiucheng & family : Sanan Optoelectronics
55. Mark Scheinberg : Entrepreneur
56. Marc Benioff : Chairman and CEO, Salesforce.com
57. Jiang Bin : Goertek
58. John Sall : Co-Founder, Executive Vice President, SAS Institute
59. Yusaku Maezawa : founded Japan’s largest online fashion mall, Zozotown
60. Barry Lam : chairman of Quanta Computer
61. Jen-Hsun Huang : Cofounded graphics-chip maker Nvidia
62. Robert Pera : Chief Executive Officer, Ubiquiti Networks Inc
63. Jeffrey Skoll : eBay’s president
64. Henry Samueli : Cofounder, Chief Technology Officer and Chairman, Broadcom
65. Nathan Blecharczyk : Entrepreneur
66. Brian Chesky : CEO and Cofounder, Airbnb, Inc.
67. Joe Gebbia : CPO & Cofounder, Airbnb, Inc.
68. Jack & Laura Dangermond : cofounders of Esri
69. Denise Coates : Founder and Joint CEO, Bet365
70. Teddy Sagi : founded gambling software developer Playtech
71. Rishi Shah : Cofounder and CEO, Outcome Health
72. Yuri Milner : Partner, Digital Sky Technologies
73. Judy Faulkner : Founder-CEO, Epic Systems
74. Michael Moritz : Chairman, Sequoia Capital
75. Henry Nicholas, III. : Cofounder, Broadcom
76. Reid Hoffman : Chairman and Cofounder, LinkedIn
77. Scott Lin & family : cofounded lens supplier Largan Precision
78. Bobby Murphy : Cofounder, Snap
79. Evan Spiegel : Cofounder and CEO, Snap
80. Frank Wang : Founder and CEO, DJI Technology Co.
81. Wang Xing : cochairs Meituan-Dianping
82. Douglas Leone : Partner, Sequoia Capital
83. Romesh T. Wadhwani : Founder and Chairman, Symphony Technology Group
84. Zhang Fan : chairman of touch screen maker Goodix, formerly known as Shenzhen Huiding Technology
85. Jim Breyer : Founder, CEO, Breyer Capital
86. Min Kao & family : Chairman and CEO, Garmin Corporation
87. Gil Shwed : inventor of the modern computer firewall
88. Thomas Siebel : software company C3IoT
89. Jason Chang : Taiwan’s Advanced Semiconductor Engineering
90. Meg Whitman : CEO, Hewlett-Packard
91. Jeff Rothschild : Advisor, Facebook
92. Simon Xie : cofounder of China e-commerce giant Alibaba Group
93. Mike Cannon-Brookes : cofounder of collaboration software firm Atlassian
94. Scott Cook : cofounded financial software giant Intuit
95. Scott Farquhar : cofounder of collaboration software firm Atlassian
96. Robert Miller : President and CEO, Future Electronics
97. Adam Neumann : cofounder and CEO of communal work space giant WeWork
98. Sean Parker : venture capital investor and philanthropist
99. Wang Laichun : chairs electronics manufacturer Luxshare Precision Industry
100. Wang Laisheng : vice chairman of electronics manufacturer Luxshare Precision Industry
source : dailymail.co.uk, forbes.com