The myth of AI wealth creation has not only created entrepreneurs like NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun, but also continuously rewarded the big shots who make friends with time.
On July 1st Eastern Time, former Microsoft CEO and President Steve Ballmer surpassed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for the first time on the Bloomberg Global Rich List, becoming the sixth richest person in the world. Data shows that as of that day, Ballmer's net assets reached $157.2 billion, while Gates' wealth was $156.7 billion, dropping to seventh place. The latest data as of July 6th shows that Ballmer's wealth has further increased to $161 billion, while Gates' wealth is $159 billion.
This is the first time that Ballmer's net worth has surpassed Gates, and it is also one of the few times in history that an employee's net worth has exceeded that of a company founder. Unlike Musk, Jeff Bezos, and others, Ballmer's wealth was not accumulated through entrepreneurial success as a founder, but simply because he chose to hold Microsoft indefinitely. As previously reported by Fortune magazine, Ballmer is the only individual with net assets exceeding $100 billion as an employee rather than a founder.
The story of Ballmer and Microsoft began in 1975, when he was still in his sophomore year at Harvard University and lived in the same hallway as Bill Gates. Despite their vastly different personalities, perhaps due to their shared interest in mathematics, Ballmer and Gates became close friends. That year, Gates, who had studied at Harvard for two years, decided to drop out and founded Microsoft, and encouraged Ballmer to drop out to help himself, but Ballmer refused.
After graduation, Ballmer tried various different jobs, including serving as a product manager at Procter&Gamble, briefly trying out Hollywood screenwriting, and later studying at Stanford Business School. In 1980, Gates once again invited Ballmer, who was pursuing an MBA, to join. This time, he readily agreed and became the 30th employee of Microsoft without any equity.
At the beginning of joining Microsoft, Ballmer worked as a business manager, earning a base salary of $50000 plus 10% of the profit growth he created. In that year, Microsoft, at the peak of the PC wave, saw rapid growth in revenue, with annual sales increasing from $16000 in 1976 to $8 million. By 1981, sales had doubled to $17 million, and profits had also increased significantly.
Because of this, the 10% increase in profit in Ballmer's compensation has also become unsustainable. At the proposal of Gates and another co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, he agreed to convert this portion of the equity into equity. By 1986, when Microsoft went public at a valuation of $700 million, Ballmer held an 8% stake in Microsoft.
In 2000, Ballmer succeeded Gates as the CEO of Microsoft until his retirement in 2014. According to regulatory documents, he also owned 333 million shares (approximately 4%) of Microsoft, making him the largest individual shareholder of Microsoft. Assuming that Ballmer retains a majority of his shares, over 90% of his net assets are Microsoft stocks.
There are mixed reviews of Ballmer's leadership at Microsoft from the outside world. In May 2012, Forbes released a ranking of CEOs in the United States, and Ballmer was named the "worst CEO in the United States", which surprised many outsiders. However, many industry insiders said that Ballmer lived up to his name. Forbes magazine believes that under the leadership of Ballmer, Microsoft's Vista system and Zune software have failed in market competition, and multiple products have been delayed in release, far lagging behind competitors in the mobile technology field.
On the other hand, during his 14 years as CEO of Microsoft, Ballmer's annual revenue nearly tripled, from $23 billion in 2000 to $86 billion in 2014. Moreover, some argue that one of Ballmer's most competent qualities as Microsoft CEO is that he pressed the switch for Microsoft's transition to cloud computing platforms before leaving and discovered the next helmsman, Nadella.
Nowadays, Ballmer's more well-known identity is the owner of the NBA Los Angeles Clippers. After retiring in 2014, he acquired the NBA Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion, an investment now valued at approximately $4.6 billion.
Disclaimer: The content and data in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Please verify before use. Based on this operation, the risk is borne by oneself.
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