1.Bill Gates
Net Worth: $66 billion
Bill Gates, the planet's most generous person, has given away $28 billion so far. Gates' net worth climbed $7 billion since last August on the strength of Microsoft shares, which rose 20%, and on gains from investments in private equity, bonds and stocks such as hygiene tech firm Ecolab and Mexican TV broadcaster Televisa. He continues to sell shares of Microsoft--he shed 80 million in the past year, about 15% of his stake--so that now just one-fifth of his net worth stems from the software company he cofounded 37 years ago.
2.Larry Ellison
Net Worth: $41 billion
Larry Ellison, America's third richest man, bought the 141-square mile Hawaiian island of Lanai in June for a reported $500 million or more. Despite Oracle's ongoing legal battles with some of its biggest competitors:, SAP, HP and Google, the company's stock has climbed 20% since late August 2011, adding $8 billion to Ellison's net worth.
3.Jeff Bezos
Net Worth: $23.2 billion
Jeff Bezos' online book giant Amazon.com is now the world's largest internet retailer of any kind, reporting over $48 billion in 2011 sales. Bezos' net worth is up $4.1 billion from August 2011. He founded Amazon.com in 1994 and took it public three years later. Amazon didn't turn a profit until late 2001.
4.Larry Page
Net Worth: $20.3 billion
In April, Larry Page celebrated one year as Google's CEO. Despite losing his voice from a mysterious ailment and disappearing from the public spotlight earlier in the summer, Page has returned to the helm of the search giant. His fortune is up $3.6 billion over the past year due to a nearly 30% climb in the price of Google shares.
5.Sergey Brin
Net Worth: $20.3 billion
While Google cofounder Sergey Brin focuses on futuristic innovations as head of special projects at the company, a nearly 30% surge in the price of Google stock in the past year lifted his net worth by $3.6 billion to $20.3 billion. He recently unveiled Project Glass at the tech giant's I/O developer conference. His presentation, which featured sky divers and BMX bikers, highlighted the capabilities of the augmented reality glasses, which will allow users to do everything from chat on video to view Google Maps while moving.
6.Steve Ballmer
Net Worth: $15.9 billion
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft since January 2000, is intent on proving the world's biggest software firm is keeping pace with its nimbler, younger rivals. In the past several months he's unveiled a significantly new desktop and mobile operating system (Windows 8), a new tablet (Surface) to take on the iPad, and switched clunky old Hotmail to a Webbier version of Outlook. His fortune is up $2 billion since August 2011.
7.Paul Allen
Net Worth: $15 billion
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has been enjoying an upswing in wealth and business activity lately. Shares of the software maker he started with Bill Gates have risen this year, but the real winners are his private investment portfolio (media, energy and tech) and his years-long effort to rehab downtown Seattle's South Lake Union district, an urbanista paradise where more luxury rentals are going up and companies are moving in.
8.Michael Dell
Net Worth: $14.6 billion
Twenty-eight years after founding Dell from his college dorm room, Michael Dell finds his computer company at a crossroads. The Texas-born mogul is intent on transforming the struggling PC maker (stock has stumbled more than a third from its March high this year) into a storage, server and software business. His fortune is down $400 million since August 2011.ntals are going up and companies are moving in.
9.Laurene Powell Jobs
Net Worth: $11 billion
Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of legendary Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, inherited a fortune after Jobs died in October 2011 that makes her the wealthiest woman in Silicon Valley. She maintains control of living trusts under her late husband's name, among them the Steven P. Jobs Trust, which is the largest shareholder of Walt Disney Co., with a 7.7% stake. Powell Jobs was an angel investor in SocialCam, a mobile video sharing startup that was bought by Autodesk for $60 million in July.
10.Mark Zuckerberg
Net Worth: $9.4 billion
Mark Zuckerberg, cofounder and chief executive officer at Facebook, saw his fortune fall $8.1 billion following the precipitous drop of shares in the Menlo Park, Calif. social networking giant. Since Facebook debuted on the Nasdaq at $38 a share in May, the stock price has dipped below $20, dropping more than 48% as of late August. The decline isn't likely to change the hoodie-wearing CEO's lifestyle much. What's less clear: whether the 28-year-old executive, who married his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan the day after the IPO and headed off for an Italian honeymoon, can right the ship and make Facebook into a winning public company. Speaking at a TechCrunch conference in September, Zuckerberg noted, "I personally would rather be underestimated."
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