Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Steve Ballmer, former assistant and confidant of billionaire Bill Gates, is now even richer. Ballmer’s wealth rose sharply, estimated at around US$ 29 billion (Rp. 461 trillion) to US$ 115 billion (Rp. 1,828 trillion).
He is now ranked as the 5th richest person in the world, according to data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Ballmer is only one rank below Gates.
Gates is now in 4th position with wealth of US$ 121 billion (Rp. 1,924 trillion) or only US$ 6 billion different from Ballmer. Three months ago, the difference was bigger, namely US$ 17 billion.
Quoted from MarketInsiderWednesday (1/11/2023), Ballmer is now richer than Larry Ellison (US$ 144 billion), Warren Buffet (US$ 111 billion), Larry Page (US$ 110 billion), Mark Zuckerberg (US$ 108 billion) , Sergey Brin (US$ 105 billion), in the index.
Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 as an assistant to Gates, who at that time was still active as president director. Her role is more like a business manager than a personal assistant.
In initial negotiations, Ballmer had a base salary of US$ 50,000 plus a bonus of 10% of company profits.
However, when the company’s profits rose sharply, he agreed to exchange his bonus for a significant portion of the company’s shares, according to a Forbes report.
Over time, Ballmer managed to become Gates’ confidant and even became CEO of Microsoft in 2000. He retired from that position in 2014 with 333 million shares or 4% of the total, according to regulatory documents.
Source of Steve Ballmer’s Wealth
Bloomberg assumes Ballmer will still hold the majority of his shares, so the value is now more than US$ 100 billion, based on Microsoft’s current share price. It has also collected billions of US dollars in dividends over the years.
Well, Ballmer’s wealth has also increased sharply this year due to the boom in AI technology which has also boosted Microsoft’s share price. Microsoft’s investment into OpenAI aka ChatGPT maker gives new hope to compete with Google.
Microsoft shares are up 38% in the last 10 months. It should be emphasized that Ballmer is the only one in the ‘Top 10’ richest people in the world who is not a company founder or current CEO.
If later Ballmer beats Gates’ wealth, this will be a new history where employees can exceed the wealth of their employers. The reason is, Gates has donated most of his shares in Microsoft as a donation to the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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