Forbes' tech billionaires list shows rich got richer, with Gates at No. 1
Surprise! The world's billionaires have become richer. And once again, techies are a major reason for that. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is again the world's richest person, with a net worth of $79.2 billion, Forbes reported Monday in its annual list of the world's richest people. Gates also topped Forbes' list of the world's richest tech billionaires, who together are worth $426 billion, representing an 11.6 percent jump over last year. The Forbes list of tech billionaires is a veritable "who's who" of industry giants. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is in second place with $54.3 billion in personal wealth, followed by Amazon's Jeff Bezos at $34.8 billion and Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg at $33.4 billion. Google co-founder Larry Page rounded out the top five tech billionaires with $29.7 billion in net worth. (Sergey Brin, Google's other co-founder, wasn't far behind, with a net worth of $29.2 billion.) The 2015 list of billionaires is the 29th from Forbes. The financial-focused publication computes net worth by analyzing an individual's stakes in companies, ownership of key assets, like real estate and art, and cash. The company also estimates a person's debt. Forbes vets the numbers with the billionaires, but since some do not comply, the figures require a bit of guesswork. Still, the Forbes billionaire list is widely considered one of the most reliable. The technology industry has long been a major contributor to the list of the world's richest people. Indeed, at nearly half a trillion dollars in net worth, tech's richest make up a sizable chunk of the $7.05 trillion in total net worth among the world's 1,826 billionaires. The tech space is also home to some of the youngest billionaires. Mark Zuckerberg is the richest person among those under 40. (He's 30.) Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel, who is just 24, made the list this year with $1.5 billion in net worth. Travis Kalanick, co-founder of car-hailing service Uber, is 38 and worth $5.3 billion, according to Forbes. His 36-year-old co-founder Garrett Camp is worth $5.3 billion, as well. Having an initial public offering in 2014 didn't hurt wallets in the tech space, either, according to Forbes. The company found that the biggest jump in net worth among tech billionaires went to Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who doubled his net worth to $22.7 billion. In September, Alibaba offered its shares on the New York Stock Exchange and quickly saw demand soar. The company raised over $25 billion and made Ma billions. Some other notable billionaires that made the list of the tech industry's richest people in 2015: former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer; Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen; Lei Jun, CEO at China-based smartphone maker Xiaomi; and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.