Technology has not only changed the world, but also has turned a slew of people into tech billionaires. Earlier this week, Forbes ranked the World's Billionaires of 2012 and not surprisingly several tech titans ranked in the list.
Start the slideshow to find out the top 20 tech billionaires who rank among the wealthiest men in the world.
Attorney Juan Jose Redin (L), Debbie Bosanek, Laurene Powell Jobs and Alicia Boler- Davis sit in First Lady Michelle Obama's box during U.S. President Barack Obama's State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 24, 2012. ReutersShiv Nadar HCLGerman Businessman Dietmar Hopp, co-founder of software firm SAP, holds the Golden Victoria in the category Prize for Integration at the VDZ Publishers' Night, a media event of publishers and advertisers, in Berlin November 16, 2009. ReutersTerry Gou, CEO of Hon Hai, Foxconn's parent company, speaks at a shareholder's meeting in Tucheng, Taiwan. ReutersRakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani attends the eG8 forum in Paris, May 24, 2011. The eG8 forum gathers "leaders of the Internet" to consider and discuss the future of the Internet and society.ReutersPierre Omidyar, the founder of online auction site eBay, is ranked 16th in the list. Omidyar donated $61.5 million in 2010, to HopeLab; Humanity United, the nonprofit arm of the Omidyar Network, in Redwood City, which supports a variety of charities; and the nonprofit branch of the Ulupono Initiative, a Honolulu organization. His wife Ms. Omidyar is chairwoman of HopeLab, a nonprofit in Redwood City, Calif., that develops technology to help chronically ill children.ReutersToday, Google changes forever: The company is consolidating 60 of its 70 privacy policies, which will allow user account information to be exchanged between all of its products. That means that YouTube, Google Docs, Gmail, Google Plus and more can begin to communicate with each other and leverage data between each other. Someone's Blogger posts may affect their Google searches; Google Plus links may affect YouTube suggestions; information will flow seamlessly between all of the popular enterprises that Google owns. In essence, Google will have a much more complete idea of who each of its users are.ReutersA portrait of Hasso Plattner, spokesman of the board of Europe's largest software company SAP as he gives a speech during the E-Link 2001 conference in Berlin February 20, 2001.ReutersJames Goodnight, chief executive of SAS Institute Inc., speaks during an interview at the Business Council meeting of U.S. executives in Cary, North Carolina, October 15, 2009. The improving U.S. economy is unlikely to create many new jobs, leading to a so-called jobless recovery, said Goodnight in an interview on Thursday. ReutersBill Gates, founder of Microsoft and now philanthropist, is the wealthiest of all other billionaires on the list. He is the richest man in America with his net worth $59.
Bill Gates, tops Forbes' list of the 400 richest Americans for the 18th year in a row.ReutersRobin LiReutersPaul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and the world's fourth richest man according to Forbes Magazine, speaks to the media after he announced plans to build a $20 million science fiction museum adjacent to his Experience Music Project, in Seattle, Washington, April 17, 2003. Reuters/HandoutREUTERSBallmer was the CEO of Microsoft for 14 years. His winning bid beat those of investors Steve Karsh and Tony Ressler as well as a group that included execs from the Guggenheim Group. ReutersDell founder and CEO Michael Dell delivers his keynote address at Oracle Open World in San Francisco, September 22, 2010.REUTERSZuckerberg will be worth more than $20bn when Facebook floatsReutersJeff Bezos holds up the new Kindle Fire at a news conference during the launch of Amazon's new tablets in New York.Shannon Stapleton / ReutersBrin, along with Larry Page, is one of the co-founders of Google. His personal wealth has been estimated at around $20 billion. He is ranked by Forbes as the 32nd richest person in the world. REUTERSLarry EllisonREUTERS
