Wipro Chairman Azim Premji and HCL cofounder Shiv Nadar are the only two Indian billionaires in Forbes’ list of the world’s 100 richest people in technology. And they rank in the top 20, ahead of Google boss Eric Schmidt and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates topped the “100 Richest Tech Billionaires In The World 2016” with an estimated fortune of $78 billion. Premji ranks 13th on the list with a net worth of $16 billion and Nadar comes in at number 17 with $11.6 billion of net worth.
Two Indian-American technology czars – Symphony Technology Group CEO Romesh Wadhwani and founders of IT consulting and outsourcing company Syntel Bharat Desai and his wife Neerja Sethi – are also on the list.
Over Half of the 100 Richest in Tech Are From the US
The titans on Forbes’ second annual list of the world’s richest in technology are worth a combined $892 billion, six percent more than a year ago. Just over half of the 100 richest in tech are from the US, including eight of the top 10 richest on the list.
China has the second highest number of tech tycoons, with 19 people worth a combined $132.7 billion. The richest Chinese member is Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who is on the 8th spot and has an estimated net worth of $25.8 billion.
Forbes said the second richest person in tech, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, is also the biggest gainer on the list. He’s ahead of Oracle chairman Larry Ellison, who comes in on the fourth spot.
Ellison was also beaten by Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who climbed from fourth to third place thanks to a 30 percent jump in the value of Facebook’s stock.
Five Women Make The Cut
Only five women rank among the world’s 100 richest in tech, including Lens Technology’s Zhou Qunfei, Epic Systems founder and CEO Judy Faulkner, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman. These 100 billionaires have an average age of 53, a decade younger than the average age of the 2016 Forbes billionaires List.
(With inputs from PTI)
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