10 Richest, Most Successful Tech Geniuses

Each year, Forbes publishes an updated list ranking the world’s billionaires. Unlike many industries, tech billionaires are mostly self-made. Many of these billionaires came from humble means and, through their own genius, changed the world. As of today, these are the ten richest, most successful tech geniuses out there. The estimated net worth of each member on this list has been updated as of October 15, 2018.

Premji is a tycoon of the Indian IT industry and Chairman of Wipro. He is also a well-regarded philanthropist and is the first Indian to sign the giving pledge, committing to give at least half of his wealth to charity.

Paul Allen was the man who originally convinced Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard and found Microsoft Corp. (MSFT). Allen left Microsoft in 1983 due to Hodgkins Lymphoma, but remained on the board until 2000. He founded Vulcan Ventures, a venture capital firm and became  a well-known investor and  philanthropist. He was the the owner of both the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA and Seattle Seahawks of the NFL. He died on October 15, 2018 at the age of 65.

Michael Dell is probably not the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of tech geniuses, simply because his company’s technology has been stale in recent years. But Dell's tremendous journey, growing his company from a home-based business to a formerly publicly-traded firm, is remarkable. The company’s claim to fame was a direct-to-consumer business model that saved cost and maximized efficiency, leading to lower priced PCs. In 2013, Dell took his company private again and has reported that the move is turning the business around.

Former English teacher turned tech entrepreneur Jack Ma is the richest man in China. In 1999, Ma and a group of friends launched Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) to address the lack of e-commerce presence in China. Presently, Ma's Alibaba Group is valued at over $200 billion and includes properties such as Alibaba.com, a wholesale e-tail site similar to eBay Inc. (EBAY) and Overstock.com Inc. (OSTK), Alitrip, Alipay, and more.  

Sergey Brin and Larry Page are co-founders of Google Inc. (GOOG), the online search and tech powerhouse whose name is now synonymous with online search itself. The duo’s PageRank algorithm for generating search results, named after Page, helped propel Google from research project to public corporation in just five years. It reorganized under the name Alphabet, Inc. in 2015, but most people still refer to it as Google. Google is one of the most important tech companies in the world today, with business units that go far beyond search.  

Oracle Corp. (ORCL) founder Larry Ellison is well known for his rags-to-riches story. He went from college dropout to self-taught programmer to billionaire, and through Oracle's success, he has become the fifth richest person in the world. Ellison is famous for his extravagant lifestyle: he owns yachts and 98% of a Hawaiian island, but he is also a tremendous philanthropist. Perhaps the most interesting fact about Ellison is that he wasn't exposed to technology from a young age and didn't start programming until college.

Facebook, Inc. (FB) founder Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to launch a business that has changed our very way of life. Along the way, he lost a few friends (as told in “The Social Network”), and showed incredible moxie by turning down a $1 billion buyout offer from Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) only two years into Facebook's existence when he was just 22 years old.

Bill Gates, the co-founder and mastermind behind Microsoft, is well known for his giving nature through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but he was less than giving in business. Gates was known for his competitive and ruthless nature as well as his tech prowess. He founded his first company, Traf-o-Data, at age 15, founded Microsoft at age 20 and became a billionaire by age 31.  Once Microsoft entered the operating system business, it became a success, with the Windows operating system serving as the standard across the PC market throughout the 90s.

In 1994, Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) after leaving a well-paying job at a Wall Street hedge fund. By starting Amazon as a simple online bookseller, Bezos was hoping to cash in on the rapid growth of Internet businesses in the 90s. Yet, through the years, both he and Amazon have proved to be transformative. Today, Amazon is a multi-platform e-commerce and technology giant that is in the business of everything from tablets, streaming movies and e-tailing. In 2013, Bezos purchased The Washington Post, and though many predicted big changes, he has left the paper largely unchanged.  Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market in 2017. In 2018 Amazon.com became the first trillion dollar company by market cap in history.