Top 5 Richest People in Tech, in 2014

They say that money doesn’t buy you happiness, but you know what it can buy you? A boat. Better yet, a YACHT. Sounds like a distant dream, doesn’t it?

For the following 5 tech entrepreneurs it was – at least at first. But through hard work, perseverance, and solid business decisions, they can now easily buy a boatload of boats. And that’s a lot of boats!

Modified photos by (in order): Jason McELweenie, Steve Jurvetson (Page photo), Oracle PR,Mohammad Jangda

Here’s a list of the most successful / richest people in the tech industry (and who knows, maybe you can join them!):

1. Bill Gates – $84.4 billion

   Most of us are well aware that Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires overview, the co-founder and current Technology Advisor of Microsoft is worth a staggering $84.4 billion dollars. Most of his fortune lies in Cascade Investment, an American holding and investment company which has stakes in more than 25 companies.

2. Larry Ellison – $46.3 billion

   Larry Ellison is the founder and largest shareholder of Oracle, the world’s largest database company, holding roughly 25% of the California-based company’s shares. He also has stakes in NetSuite, LeapFrog Enterprises, and a broad range of real estate property located throughout the world, adding up to a total of $46.3 billion dollars.

3. Mark Zuckerberg – $33.1 billion

   Everybody knows the name Mark Zuckerberg, and even more people know of Facebook. The CEO and co-founder of the world’s largest social networking site started building “The Facebook” from his Harvard dorm room with three friends. The site quickly gained popularity and today, Facebook has more than 1.1 billion monthly users. The majority of Zuckerberg’s fortune lies in his 22 percent share in Facebook, which went public on May 17, 2012. He has recently donated 36 million shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

4. Larry Page – $32.6 billion

   If there is a tech company with a more commonly known name than Facebook, it is Google. The world’s largest (and arguably most successful) search engine handles more than 5 billion search queries a day, and has indexed about 30 trillion web pages. So who is one of the top people behind it all? Larry Page, CEO and co-founder, who is currently worth $32.5 billion dollars – the majority of his wealth held in a 7% share of the company.

5. Sergey Brin – $32.3 billion
   

   Larry Page didn’t found Google alone. He did it with partner Sergey Brin. Brin graduated Cum Laude at the University of Maryland, and received his M.S.C. at Stanford University, where he met Page in 1995. Together they developed the technology behind Google, which became a worldwide standard (with about 70% market share). With a net worth of $32.3 billion dollars, Brin is a strong contender to surpass Page on the list.

Looking to join the list of the “Richest People in Tech?”

You don’t need to be rich or own a boat to be happy, but those of you looking to become the next Zuckerberg, or Brin might be wondering what you can do to get yourself on the list.

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