he started as Bill Gates’ assistant, now he is the fifth richest person – SMARTmania.cz

• Steve Ballmer is currently the fifth richest person in the world
• He is “just” five billion dollars short of surpassing Bill Gates
• Elon Musk leads the list of the richest people

When the word “richest man on the planet” comes to mind, Bill Gates is the first name that comes to mind. The former director of Microsoft basked at the top of the list of people with the largest assets for many years, but in recent years the wealth of other businessmen has grown faster. According to the ranking of the Bloomberg agency, Elon Musk is currently the richest person on the planet with a fortune of 193 billion dollars, Gates is supposed to be in fourth place. However, he could soon be replaced in this position by his former assistant and successor in the director’s chair of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer.

Steve Ballmer’s fortune is skyrocketing

Former Microsoft executives seem to have a keen eye for money. Steve Ballmer’s fortune has reportedly grown by $31 billion since January this year to a total of $117 billion, while Bill Gates’ fortune is estimated at $122 billion. Ballmer is “just” five billion dollars short of matching the former boss.

The two billionaires met at Harvard University, where Ballmer graduated with degrees in applied mathematics and economics. Instead, Gates dropped out of university and founded Microsoft in 1975, then offered Ballmer the position of business manager in 1980. Ballmer gradually replaced several managerial positions at Microsoft, until finally he succeeded Bill Gates in the director’s chair – this happened in January 2000, Ballmer spent 14 years in the position of the head of the company.

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Steve Ballmer: six facts you might not have heard about

During Ballmer’s rule, Microsoft achieved record profits, and it is these successes that account for the lion’s share of his current fortune – he owns 4 percent of the company’s stock and regularly collects billions of dollars in dividends. So it can be said that the bigger Microsoft’s market capitalization, the bigger Ballmer’s wealth is. But the former Microsoft director also has other activities, the most obvious of which is the ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team.

Don’t overlook

Bill Gates: six facts you might not have heard about

Interestingly, from the list of the ten richest people on the planet, Steve Ballmer is the only one who did not establish any large business empire. In addition to Bill Gates, between him and Elon Musk (Tesla, Space X) are Bernarn Arnault (LVMH) and Jeff Bezzos (Amazon), behind him are Larry Ellison (Oracle), Warren Buffet (Berkshire, Hathaway), Larry Page (Alphabet), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) and Sergey Brin (Alphabet).