He is among the ten richest people in the world. He started as Bill Gates’ assistant

Steve Balmer is the 24th employee, which today employs over 200,000. people all over the world. He is worth $123 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. This is only PLN 6 billion less than he has (who, however, gives away a large part of his wealth as part of his philanthropic activities) –

Steve Ballmer started as Bill Gates’ assistant

Ballmer’s fortune increased by $37 billion in one year. Apart from Bill Gates, he is only ahead of him ($208 billion), Bernard Arnault ($165 billion) and Jeff Bezos ($163 billion). Steve Ballmer is the only one in the top ten richest people in the world who has never started his own business that would become a global company. He attended Harvard and that’s where he met Bill Gates. Unlike his colleague, who dropped out of school to found Microsoft in 1975, Ballmer graduated with a degree in applied mathematics and economics.

He started at Microsoft as an assistant to the president. At the time, however, he was actually a business manager of a rapidly growing software company. Over the years, he was promoted to subsequent positions, and over time he replaced Bill Gates at the head of Microsoft. He resigned from this position in 2014 when he bought the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team.

Most of the assets are, of course, Microsoft shares. Bloomberg estimates that he owns 4%. companies. The company’s valuation increased by 40% in 2023 alone. due to the revolution in the artificial intelligence sector.

Two rankings of the richest

In the Forbes ranking, Steve Ballmer ranks only 9th with a fortune estimated at $197 billion. The fortunes of the rich change almost every day, because their size partly depends on stock exchange prices. The differences in the rankings result, firstly, from the fact that they take into account different time periods and, secondly, from the adoption of different methodologies.

Forbes employs 50 reporters from different countries who follow the activities of the world’s richest people. The collected data is then compared with surveys completed by people who may be on the list. Reporters also conduct interviews, among others: with employees, managers, financial advisors, and even the rivals of the wealthy. The final ranking also takes into account share prices valid one month before the publication of the ranking.

The Bloomberg index is updated daily, so it is naturally impossible for the portal to collect data in the same way as Forbes. In this case, journalists rely on stock indexes, public and private data. Bloomberg claims that it has a more accurate list than the competition because it uses a more transparent methodology and has better reports.