The fast-moving startup scene has captured the imaginations of many people around the world.
Part of the reason? The traditional art of fortune-building used to pay off only after decades of perseverance, focus, and patience. Today, however, the scalability of technology allows an aspiring entrepreneur to go from zero to hero in a few short years.
With a bright idea and skillful execution, a billion-dollar fortune can be made almost overnight.
The Top 10 Billionaires in Tech
The speed of technology is reflected in the following infographic from ERS Solutions, which covers the wealthiest 10 billionaires in tech.
The oldest person on the list is Larry Ellison at 72 years old.
The youngest? It’s Mark Zuckerberg, who is forty years his junior.
How fast do things change in tech?
Compare this year’s list with the top 10 billionaires in tech from 2006 and you will see clear differences.
Hasso Plattner, Paul Allen, and Pierre Omidyar all made the list ten years ago, but are nowhere to be seen on the 2016 edition. They were bumped off the list by new names like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Jack Ma – entrepreneurs who were just getting things rolling in 2006.
Back then, Amazon’s stock price was $35 per share (today, it is $844) and Facebook had just started allowing signups from users outside of colleges and high schools. Meanwhile, Alibaba had measly revenues of $68 million per year, and had just took a $1 billion investment from Yahoo.
The criteria to make the list has also changed considerably over the last decade. The “poorest” person on the list had $6 billion in 2006. Ten years later, one would need at least a fortune of $20 billion to scrape it onto the list’s #10 spot.
Here’s the data from 2016 again in table-form:
Top 10 Billionaires in Tech
| Rank | Name | Source of Wealth | Age | Fortune |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Gates | Microsoft | 62 | $78 billion |
| 2 | Jeff Bezos | Amazon.com | 52 | $66.2 billion |
| 3 | Mark Zuckerberg | 32 | $54 billion | |
| 4 | Larry Ellison | Oracle | 72 | $51.7 billion |
| 5 | Larry Page | 43 | $39 billion | |
| 6 | Sergey Brin | 43 | $38.2 billion | |
| 7 | Steve Ballmer | Microsoft | 60 | $27.7 billion |
| 8 | Jack Ma | Alibaba | 52 | $25.8 billion |
| 9 | Ma Huateng | Tencent | 44 | $22 billion |
| 10 | Michael Dell | Dell | 51 | $20 billion |
