Virtually everyone has heard of top technology billionaires such as Tim Cook and Bill Gates, but the fact is plenty of other entrepreneurs made fortunes on tech products and services many of us use daily. This article puts a brief spotlight on Sunil Mittal, Ma Huateng, Zhang Yiming, Carlos Slim Helú and Larry Ellison.
Low-profile billionaire #5:
Sunil Mittal (65 years old)
- Region: Asia, Africa
Sunil Mittal was born in Ludhiana (Punjab state – India). The starting point of his career was to make bicycle parts. From making and later selling bicycle parts, he moved to assembling phones and then, finally, in the 1990s he started making his first steps in the telecommunications sector. He is now one of the owners of Bharti Airtel, an MNO with presence not just in India but also in several Asian and African countries.
Sunil is worth nearly US$7 billion, according to Forbes.
Low-profile billionaire #4:
Ma Huateng (51 years old)
- Region: Asia, Global
Ma Huateng was born in Shantou (Guangdong province – the PRC). He holds a degree in computer sciences and applied engineering from the university of Shenzhen.
About 25 years ago, Ma founded Tencent together with a couple of people he was friends with at school. The company is now a tech juggernaut, with financial ties to companies such as Riot Games (the developer of League of Legends) and Epic and with a couple of immensely popular products in its portfolio, such as the WeChat app.
Ma is currently worth more than US$36 billion, according to Forbes.
Low-profile billionaire #3:
Zhang Yiming (40 years old)
- Region: Asia, Africa
Zhang Yiming was born in Longyan (Fujian province – the PRC); he has a degree in microelectronics and software development, and he had at one point worked at Microsoft. He is the youngest person on this little list.
Zhang is the man behind TikTok, a wildly popular social network, and several other companies mostly serving his native market. He also controls ByteDance, a company with a long list of various assets. Forbes puts Zhang’s net worth at roughly US$45 billion.
Low-profile billionaire #2:
Carlos Slim Helú (83 years old)
- Region: Americas, Europe
Carlos Slim Helú was born in the capital of Mexico. He is said to have started trading stocks and making investments in his early teens.
Carlos is the CEO of América Móvil, meaning he in large part controls Claro (the dominant MNO of South America and Central America) and A1, a European MNO with presence in several Central European, Eastern European and Southern European nations. He also has interests in other sectors, such as publishing, and is said to be worth nearly US$97 billion.
Low-profile billionaire #1:
Larry Ellison (78 years old)
- Region: North America, Global
Larry Ellison was raised by his relatives in Chicago. He has had a long career, including being one of the CIA’s subcontractors at a comparatively young age and being one of the decision-makers at Tesla for four years (he left in August 2022). It took him several decades to become truly rich. Larry is one of the founders of Oracle, a tech company known for its free-to-use VirtualBox emulation software among other things; Forbes estimates his net worth as being close to US$145 billion.
Sergey Tarasov – Senior Tech Writer – 2285 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2010
I love reading stuff. I also love dealing with different electronic devices, be that a remotely controlled toy or a new MacBook. When I am not at work, you can try searching for me somewhere in the mountains of Altai Republic, Russia.
Sergey Tarasov, 2023-08- 7 (Update: 2023-08- 7)
