Top 10 Richest Tech Billionaires Of 2022

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It’s already shaping up to be a tough year for tech. The Nasdaq Technology 100 Index hasn’t been able to sustain its pandemic-fueled highs, dipping 12% in 2022. A tech selloff in China has pushed Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Tech Index down 20% year to date. And, like the rest of the market, tech isn’t immune to investor worries about inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Third most billionaires in tech industry

According to Forbes’ estimates, 332 billionaires made their fortunes in the tech industry, down from 365 last year. It has the third-most billionaires in the world, behind finance and investments, with 393 billionaires, and manufacturing, with 337 billionaires. Collectively, tech billionaires are worth $2.1 trillion, down from $2.5 trillion last year—though their fortunes are still higher than any other sector in the world. What hasn’t changed? Tech’s dominance on the top of the list. Six of the world’s richest people hail from tech: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

The cooling stock market is certainly hurting the tech industry, but there’s another explanation that partially explains the tech billionaire decline. Forbes changed its methodology for categorizing social media moguls, shifting people like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Snapchat cofounders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy to media and entertainment instead of tech to better reflect how those companies are functioning.

Crackdown on Chinese companies

But the biggest factor impacting the most tech billionaires: a regulatory crackdown on large tech companies in Beijing, which has hammered Chinese tech moguls. Last year, nine of the top 20 tech billionaires were from China. This year, it’s only three.

Here are the top 20 richest people in tech:

Net worths are as of March 11, 2022

1. Jeff Bezos

Net worth: $171 billion

Source of wealth: Amazon

Country: U.S.

2 . Bill Gates

Net worth: $129 billion

Source of wealth: Microsoft

Country: U.S.

3 . Larry Page

Net worth: $111 billion

Source of wealth: Alphabet

Country: U.S.

4 . Sergey Brin

Net worth: $107 billion

Source of wealth: Alphabet

Country: U.S.

5. Larry Ellison

Net worth: $106 billion

Source of wealth: Oracle

Country: U.S.

6. Steve Ballmer

Net worth: $91.4 billion

Source of wealth: Microsoft

Country: U.S.

7. Michael Dell

Net worth: $55.1 billion

Source of wealth: Dell Technologies

Country: U.S.

8. MacKenzie Scott

Net worth: $43.6 billion

Source of wealth: Amazon

Country: U.S.

9. Ma Huateng

Net worth: $37.2 billion

Source of wealth: Tencent

Country: China

10. Shiv Nadar

Net worth: $28.7 billion

Source of wealth: HCL Technologies

Country: India

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Source: Forbes