The 20 Richest Tech Billionaires In The World: Forbes’ 2022 List
From Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos to Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, here are the techies who made Forbes’ 2022 list of the world’s billionaires.
There’s no need to pull out a violin for the world’s richest billionaires, but let it be known they did collectively suffer a bit over the past year.
According to Forbes magazine’s recently released 2022 World’s Billionaires List, there were 2,668 billionaires around the world as of earlier this year, down 87 from the year before.
Meanwhile, the collective worth of billionaires around the world was $12.7 trillion as of early April, down $400 million from the year prior, according to the Forbes list.
Some of the reasons cited for the decline, based on Forbes data as of early April: economic turmoil caused by the pandemic and its aftershocks, high global inflation, and disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Among some of the interesting facts about the 2022 Forbes World’s Billionaires List, there were 34 fewer Russian billionaires and 87 fewer Chinese billionaires on this year’s list
America once again has the most billionaires in the world, or 735 on this year’s list, and once again the richest man in the world is an American. But it’s not Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who’s topped the list for the past four years. Instead, Elon Musk, of Telsa and Space X fame, topped the 2022 Forbes list with a net worth of $219 billion.
As for technology and telecom figures on the list, they’re once again dominating, with eight of the top 20 spots held by those with technology and telecom ties.
There are 236 newbies on the 2022 list, including Cliff Obrecht, co-founder of design software maker Canva, and Melainie Perkins, also co-founder of Canva.
Here are the top 20 tech and telecom people on this year’s Forbes World’s Billionaires list (in order of least to most wealthy).
The 20 Richest Tech Billionaires in 2022:
20. Scott Farquhar
Worth: $15.1 billion
Overall ranking: #123 – tied with Pavel Durov
Scott Farquhar is cofounder, along with Mike Cannon-Brookes, of collaboration software company Atlassian, based in Sydney, Australia. The company boasts NASA, Tesla and SpaceX as among its customers.
20. Pavel Durov
Worth: $15.1 billion
Overall ranking: #123 – tied with Scott Farquhar
Cofounder and owner of messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov’s firm has more than 600 million users worldwide – and its prominence has increased since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war earlier this year. Durov’s net worth fell by $2.1 billion in the past year, knocking his ranking down from No. 112 in 2021 to No. 123 in 2022.
19. Mike Cannon-Brookes
Worth: $15.3 billion
Overall ranking: #119
Mike Cannon-Brookes is cofounder of Atlassian, the Australian collaboration software firm which boasts NASA, Tesla and SpaceX as among its customers. Earlier this year, Cannon-Brookes and a Canadian asset manager unsuccessfully tried to buy AGL Energy.
18. Laurene Powell Jobs
Worth: $16.4 billion
Overall ranking: #110
The widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, Laurene Powell Jobs now ranks No. 110 on the Forbes list of billionaires, down from No. 96 last year, as her net worth fell by about $2.6 billion to $16.4 billion in 2022.
17. Jensen Huang
Worth: $20.6 billion
Overall ranking: #78
Jensen Huang, cofounder and CEO of chip giant Nvidia, has been riding high for a while with his firm’s chips for gaming, data centers and autonomous cars – and Huang’s wealth has been riding high as a result. His ranking jumped from No. 186 in 2021 to No. 78 in 2022, thanks to a nearly $9 billion jump in his wealth over the past year.
16. Masayoshi Son
Worth: $21.3 billion
Overall ranking: #74
Masayoshi Son, who founded mobile telecom and investment powerhouse SoftBank Group, saw his company’s shares – and his net worth – take a hit in 2021 after Didi Chuxing, a ride-hailing firm, was pressured by Chinese regulators to delist from U.S. markets and relist in Hong Kong. Son’s worth plunged from $45.4 billion in 2021 to $21.3 billion in 2022.
15. Eric Schmidt
Worth: $22.1 billion
Overall ranking: #70
Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and Novell, saw his worth increase from $18.9 billion to $22.1 billion, moving him up in rankings from No. 96 last year to No. 70 this year. Interesting item via Forbes: Schmidt is now a visiting innovation fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
14. Jack Ma
Worth: $22.8 billion
Overall ranking: #67
Cofounder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, Ma, who stepped down as executive chair in 2019, saw his net worth plummet from $48.4 billion last year to $22.8 billion in 2022, pushing him down in rankings from No. 26 in 2021 to No. 55 in 2022. In late 2020, regulators halted a planned IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai of fintech company Ant Group, whose largest shareholder is Ma.
13. William Ding
Worth: $25.2 billion
Overall ranking: #55
William Ding’s Netease, the huge online and mobile games businesses, is in tough competition with Chinese rival Tencent, but has recently begun to expand into movies, online music and e-commerce, as Forbes reports. Ding’s worth fell from $33 billion in 2021 to $25.2 billion in 2022, knocking him down ten spots in rankings this year.
12. Shiv Nadar
Worth: $28.7 billion
Overall ranking: #47
His daughter now runs HCL Technologies, but Shiv Nadar, cofounder of the company, remains chairman emeritus and strategic advisor to the India-based software services provider. His worth jumped by $5.2 billion over the past year, pushing him up in the rankings from No. 71 in 2021 to No. 47 in 2022.
11. Ma Huateng
Worth: $37.2 billion
Overall ranking: #34
Ma Huateng is chair of Tencent Holdings, China’s huge Internet company that owns the popular social messaging app WeChat. His worth fell from $65.8 billion in 2021 to $37.2 billion in 2022, knocking his ranking down from No. 15 last year to No. 34 in 2022.
10. MacKenzie Scott
Worth: $43.6 billion
Overall ranking: #30
The ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott has become a philanthropic powerhouse, though her worth fell to $43.6 billion this year, down $9.4 billion from 2021. Her ranking was also down from No.22 to #30.
9. Mark Zuckerberg
Worth: $67.3 billion
Overall ranking: #15
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg had a somewhat rocky political and financial year in 2021, with his social-network company coming under fire for spreading pandemic-era misinformation and his net worth falling from $97 billion to $67.3 billion. His overall ranking also fell from No. 5 in 2021 to No. 15 in 2022.
8. Michael Dell
Worth: $55.1 billion
Overall ranking: #24
Though Michael Dell is chair and CEO of Dell Technologies, Forbes reports that “much of Dell‘s fortune lies in his private investment firm MSD Capital, which has stakes in hotels and restaurants.” His worth increased by $10 billion last year, moving him up in the rankings from No. 30 to No. 24.
7. Carlos Slim Helu
Worth: $81.2 billion
Overall ranking: #13
Carlos Slim Helu and his family control América Móvil, Latin America‘s biggest mobile telecom firm. With other investments, Slim is considered the richest man in Mexico. Interesting fact: He owns 17 percent of the New York Times. His worth jumped from $68.7 billion in 2021 to $81.2 this year.
6. Steve Ballmer
Worth: $91.4 billion
Overall ranking: #9
Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, saw both his ranking and worth increase over the past year, from No. 14 ranking in 2021 to No. 9 this year and from $68.7 billion to $91.4 billion.
5. Larry Ellison
Worth: $106 billion
Overall rank: #8
Larry Ellison, cofounder, chairman and CTO of Oracle, is a perennial top-level member of the world’s billionaire’s club. Over the past year, his worth increased from $93 billion to $106 billion, though he did drop in rankings from No. 7 to No. 8.
4. Sergey Brin
Worth: $107 billion
Overall ranking: #7
Sergey Brin, who cofounded Google with Larry Page, is also no longer involved in the daily operations of the company – and yet his net value also increased last year by nearly $20 billion to $107 billion.
3. Larry Page
Worth: $111 billion
Overall ranking: #6
Larry Page is no longer in charge of day-to-day operations at Alphabet, the parent company of Google. But he’s still a board member and major shareholder – and his net worth increased over the past year by about $20 billion to $111 billion.
2. Bill Gates
Worth: $129 billion
Overall rank: #4
Bill Gates, the legendary cofounder of Microsoft, had a personally rocky 2021, announcing that he and his wife, Melinda, were divorcing after 27 years. But they’re still co-chairs of the charitable Gates Foundation and his net worth actually increased by $5 billion from last year, to $129 billion as Microsoft and its technology, including its cloud business, have been thriving during the pandemic era.
1. Jeff Bezos
Worth: $171 billion
Overall rank: #2
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos may no longer be the richest man in the world, thanks to Elon Musk taking the top spot. But he’s still the second-richest person in the world – and the richest tech titan in the world – with a net worth of $171 billion. Even after giving up control as CEO of Amazon, Bezos is still very much in charge of his own wealth.