Steve Ballmer’s wealth has seen a remarkable increase this year, propelling him up the list of the world’s richest individuals. He is now on the cusp of surpassing Bill Gates, Microsoft’s iconic co-founder and his former superior.
Ballmer’s fortune has swelled by an estimated $29 billion this year, bringing his total wealth to approximately $115 billion. This surge has catapulted him to the fifth position on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The gap between Ballmer and Gates, who currently occupies the fourth spot with $121 billion, has dwindled to just $6 billion, a stark contrast to the $17 billion difference just three months ago. At present, Ballmer’s net worth surpasses that of other notable figures, including Larry Ellison ($114 billion), Warren Buffett ($111 billion), Larry Page ($110 billion), Mark Zuckerberg ($108 billion), and Sergey Brin ($105 billion), as indicated by the index.
Back in 1980, Ballmer started his journey at Microsoft as an assistant to the president, although his role was more akin to a business manager than a traditional personal assistant. Initially, he negotiated a compensation package that included a $50,000 base salary and 10% of the profit growth he contributed to. However, as his share of the profits grew substantially, he made the decision to exchange it for a significant equity stake, as reported by Forbes.
Bill Gates’ trusted advisor steadily rose through the ranks and assumed the position of Microsoft’s CEO in the year 2000. He retired from this role in 2014, holding 333 million shares, which amounted to a 4% ownership stake in the company, as indicated in regulatory filings. According to Bloomberg’s estimates, it’s likely that he has held onto most of those shares, and with Microsoft’s current stock price, they would be valued at over $100 billion today. In addition to the increase in stock value, he has probably received billions of dollars in dividends over the years as well.
Steve Ballmer’s wealth has shot up because of the big interest in artificial intelligence, which is like super-smart computer stuff. Microsoft, the company where Ballmer used to work, has made a lot of money from this AI craze. A major reason for this is that Microsoft invested in a company called OpenAI, which is like a parent company to stuff like ChatGPT.
This investment shows that Microsoft wants to be a big player in the AI game and use AI to grow even more. People think Microsoft can challenge Google’s parent company, Alphabet, which is known for being the king in internet search. All this excitement has made Microsoft’s stock price go up by a lot – around 38% in the last 10 months.
As Microsoft’s stock has gone up, it’s made Steve Ballmer even richer. He’s a major owner of Microsoft, so the increase in stock price has boosted his wealth. It’s like when you own a piece of a big pie, and that pie gets even bigger, your piece gets more valuable. That’s what’s happening with Ballmer’s money.
It’s important to highlight that Steve Ballmer stands out among the top 10 richest individuals on Bloomberg’s wealth list. People like Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos, and others have amassed their wealth primarily because they either founded or are currently in charge of the companies they own. In contrast, Ballmer is neither the founder of Microsoft nor its current CEO.
If Ballmer does manage to surpass Bill Gates in wealth, it would be a very unusual situation. Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has diversified his wealth over time by investing in various areas and generously donating large sums to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other charitable causes. It’s quite rare for an employee to end up wealthier than the founder of the company they worked for, especially considering Gates’ significant philanthropic efforts.
