Gates, Ellison, Bezos, Zuckerberg Got Richer in 2012

By Wolfgang Gruener
published

2012 was kind to the tech community's biggest moguls and helped them grow their financial assets.

Despite his charity efforts, Bill Gates is still leading the landscape with an estimate fortune of $63.4 billion, which was up 1.1 percent year over year. Oracle's Larry Ellison is a solid second with $40.7 billion, followed by Amazon's Jeff Bezos ($24.1 billion) and the Google founders Larry Page ($21.8 billion) and Sergey Brin ($21.6 billion), according to Bloomberg.

The only non-American on the top 10 tech list is Wipro's Azim Premji from India, who is estimated at a wealth $15.8 billion. Zuckerberg made the top 10 even with Facebook's continued stock troubles and has a net worth of $12.9 billion. All top tech billionaires were able to grow their holdings marginally in 2012, according to the list.

The world's richest individual remains Carlos Slim Helú with an estimated net worth of $76.4 billion.

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Wolfgang Gruener
10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • burmese_dude
    I demand that they add me to this list.

    My bank account grew whopping $135.15 compared to the year before.

    This is injustice of all proportions.
    Reply
  • robochump
    I wonder how Bill Gates fortune is growing if he is a philanthropist? If that actually makes you money I want in!!!
    Reply
  • halcyon
    ^He's making more money than he's giving away? Possibly?
    Reply
  • pervbear
    robochumpI wonder how Bill Gates fortune is growing if he is a philanthropist? If that actually makes you money I want in!!!
    From another article I had read about Gates its his investments that keep bringing in the money. And him every so often pawning off some Microsoft stock he still owns.
    Reply
  • burmese_dude
    robochumpI wonder how Bill Gates fortune is growing if he is a philanthropist? If that actually makes you money I want in!!!
    He invests in a company/team of lawyers that sues everyone on behalf of Apple.
    Reply
  • How's that Trickle Down working 4 u ?
    Reply
  • beayn
    robochumpI wonder how Bill Gates fortune is growing if he is a philanthropist? If that actually makes you money I want in!!!Charity organizations only have to give away 5% of their net worth per year to be considered a charitable foundation in the USA. Thus, if you can grow the foundation by 10% per year, you're still basically growing even after giving away 5%. That's not to say he isn't doing great work with the foundation, just that it can also be profitable.

    As someone else stated, a diverse investment portfolio helps as well.

    Gates would probably be worth double what he is today if he didn't give anything away.


    Reply
  • chewy1963
    Sounds like Bill Gates should be hedge fund manager as well! :lol:
    Reply
  • descalada
    burmese_dudeI demand that they add me to this list. My bank account grew whopping $135.15 compared to the year before.

    You are on the list, you're just number 1,500,000,000.
    Reply
  • alidan
    robochumpI wonder how Bill Gates fortune is growing if he is a philanthropist? If that actually makes you money I want in!!!i wish i had so much money, my money reproduced, and made even more money...
    Reply