Who’s the richest tech boss? From Jeff Bezos to Elon Musk and Bill Gates – Evening Standard

The wealth of many billionaires has risen dramatically since coronavirus lockdown, driven in part by stock market gains and corporate bailouts from the US government.

This took place while millions of people have lost jobs and income more than 50 million people in the US alone have filed for unemployment during the pandemic.

Some of the richest people in the world made their money from founding tech companies that we seemingly cannot do without, including Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Netflix.

This week, Elon Musk became the fourth richest man in the world, after gaining $8 billion in a day.

Hkere we look at some of the billionaires at the world's largest tech companies.

Jeff Bezos(Getty Images)

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is worth $193 billion (about 147 billion), according to the Forbes Billionaires list. He has consistently been the richest person in the world since 2018.

Mr Bezos, 56, is on course to be a trillionaire by 2026, if his wealth continues to grow at the same rate as in the past five years. Given the Amazon share price, a significant driver of his net worth has been on a very strong run for years that may not continue, some have argued that the projection may not come true.

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He launched the e-commerce company in 1994 as Cadabra, but soon changed the name. The company had revenues of $281 billion (214 billion) in 2019 by far the largest revenue for an internet company.

Amazon has been criticised for its allegedly harsh labour practices and tax policy. The company has consistently denied these claims.

Mr Bezos was also called "the world's worst boss" by an international trades union in 2014. Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Union of Trade Confederations, said: "Jeff Bezos represents the inhumanity of employers who are promoting the American corporate model."

He has also owned the Washington Post newspaper since 2013, among a number of other investments. He has given several billion dollars to charity, including a promise of $10 billion (about 7.6 billion) to help fight climate change.

When he and his wife MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2018, she kept 25 per cent of their previously-joint shares in Amazon, as well as interests in other ventures becoming one of the richest women in the world with a fortune of $36 billion (about 27.8 billion).

Elon Musk (Getty Images)

Elon Musk is now worth $84.8 billion, after his stock jumped 11 percent on Monday - making him the fourth richest person in the world, surpassing Bernard Arnault, CEO of Louis Vuitton. Tesla's shares rose an additional 2.8 percent on Tuesday.

South Africa-born Musk is an engineer, industrial designer, and technological entrepreneur, who founded SpaceX, The Boring Company and X.com - which became PayPal. He is also CEO of Tesla.

He is a US, Canadian and South African citizen. He previously dated actors Amber Heard and Talulah Riley, whom he married. He is currently in a relationship with Canadian musician Grimes - with whom he had a baby, famously named X AE A-XII.

Musk is also a philanthropist, and has given money towards environmental projects and projects to combat coronavirus.

Bill Gates (Getty Images)

Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen, is worth about $113.4 billion (about 86.6 billion), according to Forbes. He was the richest person in the world for every year but four between 1995 and 2017, according to Forbes after which Mr Bezos surpassed him.

He no longer runs Microsoft, having stepped down as CEO in 2000 and chairman in 2014. Mr Gates now focuses on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, thought to be the largest private charity in the world.

Mr Gates came in for fierce criticism for some of Microsoft's business practices, which were seen as stifling competition. The US government took Microsoft to court in 2001, reaching a settlement that the company would share some of its software with third parties.

Mark Zuckerberg(REUTERS)

Mark Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook with four college room-mates in 2004, is the next tech billionaire on the list with $97.5 billion (about 74.4 billion) although he is not currently as wealthy as owner of luxury goods firm LVMH Bernard Arnault, who along with his family is worth $107.4 billion (about 82 billion).

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Mr Zuckerberg, 36, has been criticised for the role Facebook has played in the 2016 US election. In 2018 it emerged that Cambridge Analytica had used Facebook user data without consent, largely for political advertising purposes, including for the campaigns of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Cambridge Analytica is also alleged to have been hired by pro-Brexit campaigners Leave.EU ahead of the 2016 referendum, although founder Arron Banks has denied this. Facebook was fined $5 billion for its role in the data breach.

Mr Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have also given major charitable donations in recent years, including pledging 99 per cent of their Facebook shares worth tens of billions of dollars to their charitable initiative over the course of their lifetimes.

Larry Page (L) and Sergey Brin (R)(AP/Reuters)

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are worth $67.2 billion (51.3 billion) and $65.4 billion (50 billion) respectively, having started the company in 1998. Google is owned by a parent company, Alphabet, of which Mr Page and Mr Brin are controlling shareholders, following a 2015 restructuring.

Mr Page was the initial CEO of Google, serving in the role until 2001. He then took over the job again in 2011, stepping down in 2015 to become CEO of Alphabet. He resigned as CEO in December 2019.

Mr Brin has been more involved with the company's experimental and developmental divisions, including Google's self-driving car programme and others.

Laurene Powell Jobs in 2019(Getty Images)

Laurene Powell Jobs is the widow and heir of Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder, who died in 2011. She founded her own firm, Terravera, a natural foods company, and previously worked at investment banks Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs.

She and her family are worth around $19 billion, or about 14.5 billion.

Apple CEO Tim Cookin 2019(Apple)

Tim Cook, her late husband's successor as Apple boss in 2011, saw his wealth top $1 billion in August with the company's share price continuing to soar, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Apple is one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world, at more than 1.93 trillion (roughly 1.45 trillion) and its share price has been on a broad upward trajectory since March.

Netflix's CEO Reed Hastings (Adam Rose )

Reed Hastings, who co-founded Netflix with Marc Randolph in 1995, has a fortune of around $5.2 billion (about $4 billion). He remains the company's co-CEO and owns about one per cent of its shares.

The company went public in 2002 and has about 183 million subscribers. It was originally a video rental service, but began streaming in 2007. He has given more than $100 million to educational charities.

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Who's the richest tech boss? From Jeff Bezos to Elon Musk and Bill Gates - Evening Standard