When Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft he did not receive a single share of the company. But now his Microsoft’s Assets Soar made him richer than the company’s founder.
The 68-year-old former Microsoft CEO managed to convince his former boss Bill Gates to become the sixth richest person Last Monday, he became the world’s richest billionaire with a fortune of $157 billion. He is now richer than many well-known tech entrepreneurs, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Oracle Dell Technologies founder Larry Ellison and CEO Michael Dell.
It is also the first time that Ballmer’s net worth has surpassed Gates’, and one of the few times in history that an employee has become richer than the founder of a company. Ballmer is the single person with a net worth of $100 billion or more who made their money as an employee rather than a founder, such as Fortune Previously reported.
Ballmer’s net worth has been boosted by a surge in Microsoft shares, which closed at a record high Tuesday and have jumped 22% since January. The company’s stock accounts for about 90% of his net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Indexand Microsoft has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom fueling markets, thanks to its $10 billion Investment in OpenAI.
In 2014, Ballmer left Microsoft with a roughly 4% stake worth $22.5 billion, according to ForbesAt the time, he said he was holding on to his shares for the long term, Forbes reported.
“I would like to own Microsoft stock until I donate to charity or die,” he said. said the exit.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates has diversified his portfolio over the years outside of the company he founded, with half of his assets now managed by private investment firm Cascade Investment. He owns a $21 billion stake in a waste management company Services of the Republic by Cascade, Bloomberg reported.
To give money
Gates’ significant philanthropic giving also comes into play. In 2023, Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates made donations $59.5 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, making it one of the world’s largest charitable foundations. In 2010, Gates also co-founded the Make a donation with French Gates and investor Warren Buffett, and has promised to give away most of his wealth during his lifetime.
Although Steve Ballmer’s wealth made him one of the richest men in the world, when he joined the company as the 30th employee in 1980, he didn’t receive a single share of stock. After dropping out of Stanford Business School, he served as Bill Gates’ quasi-personal assistant with the unimpressive title of “Chief Business Officer.” Forbes reported.
However, as Microsoft was looking to grow rapidly at the time, Gates and his co-founder, Paul Allen, agreed to give Ballmer 10% of the profit growth he generated in addition to his $50,000 annual salary.
This deal proved to be the key to Ballmer’s future wealth. Soon, Microsoft was growing so rapidly that Ballmer’s 10% stake no longer made financial sense for the company. When Microsoft reorganized as a corporation, Ballmer negotiated an 8% stake for himself in exchange for dropping his profit-sharing agreement, while Gates and Allen kept 84% and another 8% went to other employees. Forbes Although Allen objected to giving Ballmer such a large stake, Gates stepped in and said Ballmer’s 8 percent reduction could be financed by a withdrawal of his own holdings, according to Forbes.
While Gates put up his own money for Ballmer at the time, the two men have since grown apart.
“Microsoft was kind of what really bonded us,” Ballmer said. told Bloomberg Television in 2016. “We started out as friends, but then we really bonded over Microsoft. Since I left, we’ve really drifted a bit.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
