Forbes unveiled its inaugural 100 Richest People in Tech list. Comprising 100 billionaires, the top of the chart is dominated by all of the names you would expect to see -- Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Page take the top five slots.
It's not just the names that are familiar. The US is the dominant country in the chart, with more than half of the list filled by American billionaires. The image of California as being the center of the world of technology is borne out by the fact that 49 of the top 100 hail from the western state. So, yes, Bill Gates tops the charts with $79.6 billion, but where are the other big names?
The size of the amassed fortunes drop off fairly quickly as you move down the list. Bill Gates in the number one position has more than four times the wealth of Michael Dell in tenth place ($19.4 billion). Microsoft is represented twice in the top ten by Gates as well as Steve Ballmer (eight position with $22.7 billion), as is Google -- Larry Page and Sergey Brin in fifth and sixth places with $33.4 billion and $32.8 billion respectively. Represented by "Laurene Powell Jobs & family" with $21.4 billion, Apple finds itself in ninth place.
Forbes notes that tech billionaires are younger than the 'average' billionaire, with a mean age of 53 -- an impressive 15 percent of the top 100 are aged under 40, and 94 percent are self-made billionaires (rather than inheriting a fortune). At the upper end of the age range is Intel's Gordon Moore (86), while the youngest is 25 year old Evan Spiegel of Snapchat.
Check out the full list of the richest people in hardware, software, social media, online gambling, and high-tech manufacturing over on the Forbes' website. Are there any entries -- or absences -- that take you by surprise?
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