Richest tech billionaires in the world

As of mid-December 2023, eight of the world’s ten wealthiest people had tech to thank for their fortunes.
Technology has not only helped humanity advance in numerous industries and enhanced people’s lives, it has also made countless ambitious and innovative minds billionaires.
The affluence of those in this industry is nothing new. The title of world’s richest person has primarily been held by tech businessmen for nearly three decades.
Elon Musk is currently the world’s richest person, having built his empire on technological breakthroughs and innovations in electric vehicles (Tesla), rocketry (SpaceX), and alternative industry.
While French luxury goods boss Bernard Arnault briefly dethroned the South African-born innovator for about two months in 2023, he has held the ranking for most of the past two years.
One of the biggest reasons for Musk’s wealth is the high share price of Tesla, the world’s most valuable automotive company and leading manufacturer of EVs.
Musk owns 13% of Tesla, worth around $98.91 billion of Tesla’s total $760 billion at the time of writing. That shareholding accounts for well over a third of his fortune.
He has a much larger 42% shareholding in private space company SpaceX, which was recently estimated to be worth around $180 billion. At that valuation, his stake would be worth about $75.6 billion.
He also has a biotech startup called Neuralink, a tunnelling company called The Boring Company, and most recently acquired Twitter, which he rebranded to X.
Musk’s fortune climbed by $85.5 billion in 2023, the most significant increase for anyone on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Preceding Musk as the world’s richest person is another billionaire in tech, Jeff Bezos, the man behind the world’s biggest online store and cloud services provider — Amazon.
Bezos held the title between 2017 and 2021 and is currently the third-richest person on the planet.
Although Bezos is no longer CEO at Amazon, he remains executive chairman.
Before Bezos’s fortune exploded, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was the wealthiest person for most of the period between 1995 and 2017, except for 2008, 2010, and 2013.
As of 13 December 2023, Gates is the 4th-richest person in the world, inching out his former Microsoft compatriot Steve Ballmer.
2023 boom in tech
2023 has been a tremendous year of share price growth for many tech companies, not only those whose founders feature in the top three.
With the consequent surge in company market capitalisations, the billionaires that own large chunks of them have also seen their fortunes skyrocket.
Among the major drivers of good fortune in the tech segment was increased investor interest in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.
One billionaire who had a particularly good year thanks to AI was Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
The graphics chip boss’ net worth jumped over 200% from $13.9 billion to $42.8 billion.
Despite this, he was not in the top 10 richest tech billionaires on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index at the time of writing.
Below are the top 10 wealthiest people who have their tech ventures to thank for most of their fortunes.
The net worth and rankings are based on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index as of Wednesday, 13 December 2023.
1. Elon Musk — $222 billion (Up $85.5 billion)
- Big shareholdings: Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X, formerly called Twitter
- Overall richest list ranking: #1

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a fireside discussion on artificial intelligence risks with Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister, not pictured, in London, UK, on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. Photographer: Tolga Akmen/EPA/Bloomberg
2. Jeff Bezos— $176 billion (Up $66.3 billion)
- Big shareholdings: Amazon.com, Airbnb, Audible, Blue Origin, Google, Uber, The Washington Post,
- Overall richest list ranking: #3

Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc., speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
3. Bill Gates — $137 billion (Up $28.2 billion)
- Big shareholdings: Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, Canadian National Railway, Waste Management, Caterpillar, Deere
- Overall richest list ranking: #4

Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, during the EEI 2023 event in Austin, Texas, US, on Monday, June 12, 2023. Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg
4. Steve Ballmer — $129 billion (Up $43.3 billion)
- Big shareholdings: Microsoft, LA Clippers basketball team
- Overall richest list ranking:Â #5

Steve Ballmer, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers and former chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., speaks during an Economic Club of Washington event in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, April 30, 2019. Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg
5. Mark Zuckerberg — $121 billion ($75.6 billion)
- Big shareholdings: Meta Platforms
- Overall richest list ranking:Â #7

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
6. Larry Page — $120 billion (Up $37.5 billion)
- Big shareholdings: Alphabet
- Overall richest list ranking: #8

Larry Page, co-founder and chief executive officer at Google Inc., speaks during the Google I/O Annual Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Larry Page
7. Larry Ellison — $120 billion (Up $27.9 billion)
- Big shareholdings: Oracle, Salesforce, NetSuite, Quark Biotechnology, Astex Pharmaceuticals
- Overall richest list ranking:Â

Larry Ellison, co-founder and executive chairman of Oracle Corp., speaks during the Oracle OpenWorld 2018 conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Monday, Oct. 22, 2018. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
8. Sergey Brin — $114 billion (Up $34.9 billion)
- Big shareholdings: Alphabet, Tesla, 23andMe
- Overall richest list ranking: #10

Sergey Brin, president of Alphabet and co-founder of Google Inc., speaks during the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) at Stanford University in Stanford, California, U.S., on Friday, June 24, 2016. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
9. Michael Dell — $74.7 billion (Up $26.3 billion)
- Big shareholdings: Dell, DFO Management, VMWare
- Overall richest list ranking: #16

Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell Technologies Inc., during South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, U.S., on Monday, March 14, 2022. Photographer: Matthew Busch/Bloomberg
10. Colin Huang — $51.6 billion (Up $22.9 billion)
- Big shareholdings: Pinduoduo
- Overall richest list ranking:Â #23

Colin Huang, chief executive officer and founder of Pinduoduo, poses for a photograph at the company’s office in Shanghai, China, on Friday, Feb. 24, 2017. Pinduoduo, or PDD, is a kind of Facebook-Groupon mashup that Huang believes could revolutionise e-commerce. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg