Steve Ballmer is wealthier than Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, and the co-founders of Google thanks to his $120 billion fortune

Even though he didn’t establish Microsoft and left his position as its CEO almost ten years ago, Steve Ballmer is richer than Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, and the Google cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Ballmer ranks sixth on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index with an estimated $120 billion in wealth. He stands out among the top 10 richest people, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Brin, and Page, who either founded their firms or are still in charge of them today, and Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, and Buffett.

Due to his original contract with the software giant, the retired Microsoft CEO is significantly wealthier than the majority of corporate leaders. He negotiated a $50,000 base wage plus 10% of any profit growth he could produce when he joined the company as its 30th employee in 1980.

Ballmer eventually decided that his share of the earnings was too high and consented to give it up in exchange for a sizeable ownership investment. From 2000 to 2014, he led Microsoft as CEO. At the time of his retirement, he owned 333 million shares, or 4%, of the business, according to regulatory records.

In Bloomberg’s wealth index, the former Microsoft CEO is far behind Larry Ellison, who is worth $133 billion, and Bill Gates, who is worth $137 billion. However, he is undoubtedly content with his position despite not being a founder or a corporate legend like Musk or Buffett.