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The Top 15 Richest Founders & Investors In The Tech & Social Media Industry
The Tech Industries Top 15 Rich List
15 (91 overall). Dustin Moskovitz, $3.5B
Where the money came from: He founded Facebook along with Mark Zuckerberg, then left in 2008 to start Asana. He’s the youngest person on the rich list.
14 (26). Gordon Moore $3.7B
Where the money came from:Intel, baby. It’s all about the Pentium processors.
13 (50). Pierre Omidyar, $6.2B
Where the the money came from: He founded eBay, then promised to give away all his money. So far, he has parted ways with over $1 billion and doesn’t look like he has any intentions of slowing up anytime soon.
12 (51). Eric Schmidt, $6.2B
Where the money came from: He spent 10 years as CEO of the massive Internet company before stepping aside because Sergey Brin and Larry Page no longer needed adult supervision. Even so, Schmidt made out okay.
11 (46). Charles Ergen, $6.4B
Where the money came from: Forbes calls him an “ornery satellite broadcasting mogul.” He made his billions at EchoStar and will play a major role as the business matures and moves online.
10 (39). Steve Jobs, $7B
Where the money came from:He founded Apple, was booted as CEO, then returned as savior, but most of Jobs’ wealth comes from the Disney stock he received when he sold Pixar.
9 (23). Paul Allen, $13.2B
Where the money came from: A little company called Microsoft.
8 (19). Steve Ballmer, $13.9B
Where the money came from: A little company called Microsoft. Sound familiar?
7 (18). Michael Dell, $15B
Where the money came from: Dell’s wealth grew $500 million in 2011, thanks to a jump in the stock price of his eponymous company. He is, however, off $3B from his peak in 2005. MSD Capital manages most of his money.
6 (15) tie. Larry Page, $16.7B
Where the money came from: The other Google co-founder is the company’s current CEO. He’s charged with keeping the search giant, well, giant. He will, meaning he and his partner will jump up the list next year.
5 (15) tie. Sergey Brin, $16.7B
Where the money came from: Brin founded Google along with Larry Page. Although his partner took over the CEO role earlier this year, Brin is just as wealthy.
4 (14). Mark Zuckerberg, $17.5B
Where the money came from:Facebook is now worth roughly $80 billion. The company’s founder owns a huge chunk, making the 27-year-old one of the youngest people on the 400 and the year’s biggest gainer.
3 (13). Jeff Bezos, $19.1B
Where the money came from:Bezos founded Amazon.com, rode it through the downturn, and made it hugely profitable. He will continue climbing the list.
2 (3). Larry Ellison, $33B
Where the money came from: Ellison founded Oracle and kept making money. He owns stakes in Salesforce.com, NetSuite, Quark Biotechnology Inc., and SuperGen among other companies. The 67-year-old recently sold the 543-foot yacht he split with David Geffen.
1 (1). Bill Gates, $59B
Where the money came from: A little company called Microsoft. You’ve surely heard of it by now, right?
Source: Forbes