THE WORLD'S RICHEST IN TECH BILLIONARES OF 2013

No. 1: Bill Gates

Net Worth: $67 billionBill Gates, the world's most generous person, has already given more than $28 billion, but said in his fifth annual letter for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that the total amount invested is less important than precise measures of impact, like child mortality rates. Gates' net worth increased $6 billion to $67 billion in the past year - with no help from the company he cofounded, Microsoft, in which he still has a 5% stock. Most of his fortune these days is spread across private equity, bonds, and stocks like hygiene tech firm Ecolab, Mexican TV broadcaster Televisa, and Latin America's largest beverage company FEMSA

No. 2: Larry Ellison

Net Worth: $43 billionIn the past year, Larry Ellison, America's third richest man, has been on a real estate buying spree. In June, he bought 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai from David Murdock. That purchase, for a reported $500 million or more, gave Ellison almost all of the 141-square mile island, including two resort hotels and a housing development. As of February, his shares of Oracle are up more than 20% year-over-year.

No. 3: Jeff Bezos

Net Worth: $25.2 billionJeff Bezos' Amazon.com is the world's largest internet retailer of any kind, reporting more than $61 billion in 2012 sales, up $13 billion from the previous year. A 40% surge in the price of the company's stock added $6.8 billion to Bezos' net worth over the past year. The Seattle-based company continues to separate from the pack on service and speed, adding 20 new shipment hubs in 2012.

No. 4: Larry Page

Net Worth: $23 billionLarry Page, Google's cofounder and CEO since April 2011, saw the company through the $50 billion revenue milestone in 2012. The stock rose nearly 30% in the past year, adding more than $4 billion to Page's net worth. With Google's desktop search business beginning to mature, Page is focusing more of his attention on mobile, an area which he called "uncharted territory" during the company's fourth quarter earnings call.

No. 5: Sergey Brin

Net Worth: $22.8 billionGoogle cofounder Sergey Brin is now director of special projects at the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant, leaving his counterpart Larry Page to handle most day-to-day operations. Brin oversees Google's foray into hardware and futuristic endeavors like driverless cars and augmented reality spectacles known as Google Glass. Since debuting Glass in June 2012 at his company's developer conference, he has been spotted testing them out on the New York City subway

No. 6: Michael Dell

Net Worth: $15.3 billionMichael Dell, whose eponymous shares have gotten no love from Wall Street in four years, wants to take his baby private. In what could be the biggest leveraged buy-out of recent years, Michael Dell and his investment partners at Silver Lake struck an agreement in February with Dell's board to acquire the company he founded in 1984 for $24.4 billion. Several prominent shareholders like Southeastern Asset Management have pledged to block the deal, arguing that the bid undervalues the company.

No. 7: Steve Ballmer

Net Worth: $15.2 billionMicrosoft CEO and Chairman Steve Ballmer is celebrating his 33rd year at the software company the same way he has spent the last few, selling the world on all of the company's new products while battling accusations he's been outmaneuvered in the mobile era by Apple and Google. Slumping PC sales don't help matters either. Ballmer is now in his 13th year as CEO and, with a stock down 1.32% over the past five years, he continues to be dogged with criticism he's been on the job too long.

No. 8: Paul Allen

Net Worth: $15 billionMicrosoft cofounder and philanthropist Paul Allen continues to score big in real estate, tech and energy. In late 2012 his Vulcan Real Estate sold to Amazon the 12-building campus the online retailer had been leasing in downtown Seattle. At $1.15 billion, it was the biggest U.S. commercial real estate deal of the year. The proceeds will go to paying off debt and developing even more space for Amazon. Allen has been selling off shares of the software maker he started with Bill Gates and investing in a more diversified basket of media, energy and tech stocks. 

No. 9: Mark Zuckerberg

Net Worth: $13.3 billionFew CEOs of any age are under more media scrutiny than 28-year-old Mark Zuckerberg. Since taking Facebook public in May 2012, the hoodie-wearing founder has seen his net worth rise and fall with every fluctuation of the stock price, which fell under $20 in August 2012. The stock has since rebounded more than 30% as of February on confidence that Facebook may end up figuring out how to make money on mobile ads.

No. 10: Azim Premji

Net Worth: $11.2 billionAsia's most generous person, Azim Premji gave away $2.3 billion worth of shares in his outsourcing firm Wipro to his education-focused foundation in February, just days after agreeing to sign Bill Gates' and Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge. Premji, who co-hosted a philanthropy meeting in June 2012 in Bangalore with Gates and Ratan Tata, had already given away $2 billion to his foundation in 2010. By FORBES' count, only four people in the world are more generous than him. Meanwhile Wipro's stock has dipped in what is seen as a difficult market for outsourcers as they scramble for new contracts.

source: forbes