The World’s Richest Don’t Have to Be Tech Founders, Look at Steve Ballmer

The sixth richest person in the world is former Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer. He has a net worth of $164 billion, below that of his former boss Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, at $177 billion. Ballmer left the CEO’s job at Microsoft in 2013. He wisely did not sell most of his shares when he left the company. He owns 4% of the massive tech company, which makes him Microsoft’s largest private owner. His dividends alone make him $1 billion a year.

The people on the list above Ballmer all started huge tech companies. These include Tesla’s Elon Musk at $368 billion, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg at $241 billion, Oracle’s Larry Ellison at $234 billion, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos at $233 billion.

Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 and became chief executive in 2000. During his 14-year tenure, Microsoft’s revenue tripled. As Ballmer left, Eric Jackson at the hedge fund Ironfire Capital told Reuters, “I don’t see anybody else on the management team at Microsoft that I think would be much better than Ballmer.” However, he received criticism for not launching popular products like the rival Steve Jobs did at Apple.

Ballmer kept 333 million shares despite leaving, about triple the number Gates has kept.

Ballmer has become a major philanthropist. While not as visible as Gates and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to Forbes, “He has ramped up his philanthropy since 2014; to date the Ballmers have given away more than $4 billion.”

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