Tech is the third-most lucrative industry for billionaires in the world.

It’s already shaping up to be a tough year for tech. The Nasdaq Technology 100 Index hasn’t been able to sustain its pandemic-fueled highs, dipping 12% in 2022. A tech selloff in China has pushed Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Tech Index down 20% year to date. And, like the rest of the market, tech isn’t immune to investor worries about inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

According to Forbes’ estimates, 332 billionaires made their fortunes in the tech industry, down from 365 last year. It has the third-most billionaires in the world, behind finance and investments, with 393 billionaires, and manufacturing, with 337 billionaires. Collectively, tech billionaires are worth $2.1 trillion, down from $2.5 trillion last year—though their fortunes are still higher than any other sector in the world. What hasn’t changed? Tech’s dominance on the top of the list. Six of the world’s richest people hail from tech: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

The cooling stock market is certainly hurting the tech industry, but there’s another explanation that partially explains the tech billionaire decline. Forbes changed its methodology for categorizing social media moguls, shifting people like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Snapchat cofounders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy to media and entertainment instead of tech to better reflect how those companies are functioning. 

But the biggest factor impacting the most tech billionaires: a regulatory crackdown on large tech companies in Beijing, which has hammered Chinese tech moguls. Last year, nine of the top 20 tech billionaires were from China. This year, it’s only three.

Here are the top 20 richest people in tech: 

Net-worths are as of March 11, 2022

1.

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos , byname of Jeffrey Preston Bezos, is an American entrepreneur who played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, Inc., an online merchant of books and later of a wide variety of products. Under his guidance, Amazon became the largest retailer on the World Wide Web and the model for Internet sales.

Net worth: $171 billion

Source of wealth: Amazon

Country: U.S.

2 .

Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, author, and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen.

Net worth: $129 billion

Source of wealth: Microsoft

Country: U.S.

 

3 .

Larry Page

Lawrence Edward Page is an American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He is best known as one of the co-founders of Google, along with Sergey Brin.

Net worth: $111 billion

Source of wealth: Alphabet

Country: U.S.

4 .

Sergey Brin

Sergey Mikhailovich Brin is an American business magnate, computer scientist, and Internet entrepreneur. Together with Larry Page, he co-founded Google. Brin was the president of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., until stepping down from the role on December 3, 2019.

Net worth: $107 billion

Source of wealth: Alphabet

Country: U.S.

5.

Larry Ellison

Lawrence Joseph Ellison is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer and former chief executive officer of Oracle Corporation.

Net worth: $106 billion

Source of wealth: Oracle

Country: U.S.

6.

Steve Ballmer

Steven Anthony Ballmer is an American business magnate and investor who served as the chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He is the current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association.

Net worth: $91.4 billion

Source of wealth: Microsoft

Country: U.S.

7.

Michael Dell

Michael Saul Dell is an American businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies.

Net worth: $55.1 billion

Source of wealth: Dell Technologies

Country: U.S.

8.

MacKenzie Scott

MacKenzie Scott is an American novelist and philanthropist. She is known for her involvement in Amazon, her philanthropic efforts, and her now dissolved marriage to Jeff Bezos. As of November 2021, she has a net worth of US$37.6 billion, owing to a 4% stake in Amazon, the company founded by Jeff Bezos.

Net worth: $43.6 billion

Source of wealth: Amazon

Country: U.S.

9.

Ma Huateng

Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma, is a Chinese billionaire business magnate. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Tencent, one of the most valuable companies in Asia.

Net worth: $37.2 billion

Source of wealth: Tencent

Country: China

10.

Shiv Nadar

Shiv Nadar is an Indian billionaire industrialist and philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman emeritus of HCL Technologies Limited and the Shiv Nadar Foundation.

Net worth: $28.7 billion

Source of wealth: HCL Technologies

Country: India

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