In the race to be the world’s richest tech billionaire, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg are closing in on frontrunner Bill Gates as their fortunes increase by $15billion each.
It comes as no surprise that Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, still holds the top spot with his fortune amassing $84.5billion, marking the Harvard dropout’s 18th time as the world’s richest billionaire.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gave Gates a run for his money, surpassing the computer whiz for one morning, but ultimately came in second with a fortune of $81.7billion.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 33, is the third richest person, valued at $69.6billion, one of the 50 Americans dominating the list, Forbes revealed on Wednesday.
Both Zuckerberg and Bezos are the first and second biggest gainers this year, respectively, each increasing their extraordinary wealth by $15.5billion.
Forbes released its annual richest billionaires in technology list on Wednesday. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (pictured) still holds the top spot with a fortune of $84.5billion
Jeff Bezos (left), the man behind Amazon, is the second richest person in tech with a fortune of $81.7billion. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 33, (right) holds the third spot with $69.6billion. Both men are the first and second biggest gainers this year, respectively, each increasing their extraordinary wealth by $15.5billion
The top three richest tech billionaires have a good head start on the rest of the competition, with Larry Ellison landing the fourth spot at $59.3billion and Larry Page in fifth at $43.9billion, according to Forbes.
The rest of the top 10 continues with Sergey Brin at $42.7billion, Jack Ma at $37.4billion, Ma Huateng with $36.7billion, Steve Ballmer with $32.9billion and Michael Dell amassing $22.4billion.
Eight out of the top 10 are from the United States with the other two hailing from China.
Bezos and Zuckerberg both had an eventful year.
Bezos, the owner of online retail giant Amazon.com, briefly held the top spot as the world’s richest person in late July when his personal wealth surpassed $91billion.
He briefly beat out Bill Gates, the 61-year-old co-founder of Microsoft Corp, who has held the top spot since May 2013.
But Bezos quickly slipped to second best when Amazon reported its second quarter earnings showing a profit of $197million on strong sales of $38billion.
The dip in profit is a 77 percent drop from $857million this time last year, and it’s mainly due to Amazon’s aggressive investments in its own business.
Snapchat founders Evan Spiegel, 27, (right) and Bobby Murphy, 29, (left) are the two youngest on the list, each worth $3.2b. The two Stanford fraternity brothers are both tied for 76th place
Bezos’ company announced in June it would take over Whole Foods for $13.7billion takeover of Whole Foods Market.
The takeover would give the e-commerce giant more than 460 Whole Foods stores and the possibility of making big changes to the supermarket industry.
Zuckerberg’s wealth grew by $15.6billion this year, thanks Facebook stock surging by 34 percent within the past 12 months.
The Facebook CEO is said to be rumored to be eyeing a role in politics, as his foundation has hired several heavy-weight political advisers to be on the charity’s board.
Plus Zuckerberg has recently made moves to propel Facebook into the world of augmented reality with a new patent.
Three members of the company’s VR arm Oculus applied for a patent for AR glasses that would allow wearers to see virtual objects – and presumably Facebook posts and notifications – in the real world around them.
Leading ladies: Meg Whitman (left) and Denise Coates (right) are two of the richest six women on the list. Whitman is worth $2.8b and Coates is valued at $3.6b
The glasses will take on the Spectacle from Snap, which has dominated consumer-friendly AR with its famed filters (which Facebook is known to steal).
Other notables on the list are Snapchat founders Evan Spiegel, 27, and Bobby Murphy, 29, the two youngest billionaires on the list, each worth $3.2billion.
The two Stanford fraternity brothers are both tied for 76th place. It is Murphy’s first time on the list.
There are six women on the list of 100, including Zhou Qunfei at $10billion, who is the richest woman in the rankings.
She is followed by Lam Wai Ying at $5.2billion, Denise Coates at $3.6billion, Judy Faulkner at $3.4billion, Meg Whitman at $2.8billion and Wang Laichun at $2.6billion.