How old tech titans were when they became billionaires

Elon Musk

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk in 1994 when he was 23. Photo courtesy of Musk's X

Musk became a self-made billionaire in 2012 at age 41 as Tesla’s stock value surged, according to Forbes. Musk, now the world’s richest man, has an estimated net worth of $424.5 billion.

He is CEO of Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, chairman and chief technology officer of social media company X, and founder of artificial intelligence startup xAI.

Musk first became the world’s richest person in September 2021, a position he held for most of 2022 before losing it in December that year. He reclaimed the top spot on June 8, 2023, and held it for the rest of the year before falling to No. 2 on Jan. 31, 2024. He rose to No. 1 again in late May 2024, after xAI raised $6 billion from private investors at a $24 billion valuation.

Larry Ellison

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison delivers a keynote at the Moscone Center in San Francisco during the Oracle OpenWorld 2011 on Oct. 2, 2011 in California. Photo by AFP

Forbes first listed Ellison as a billionaire at the age of 49 in 1993 with an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion.

In July 2025, Ellison overtook Mark Zuckerberg to become the world’s second-richest person with a net worth of $251 billion, up nearly $60 billion this year alone, according to Fortune.

Ellison co-founded Oracle in 1977 and served as CEO for 37 years until 2017, growing it into one of the world’s most valuable tech firms. His real estate holdings are worth over $1 billion, including an island in Hawaii purchased for $300 million in 2012. After stepping down, he gained a reputation as a jet-setting, yacht-racing playboy, according to Business Insider.

Mark Zuckerberg

Young Mark Zuckerberg during the early days of Facebook. Photo from Instagram

Zuckerberg became a billionaire at 23 in 2008, one year after reaching millionaire status, when Facebook went public, making him the youngest self-made billionaire in history at the time.

Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook, now Meta Platforms, in 2004 while studying at Harvard University. Meta also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, according to Forbes.

Today, Zuckerberg’s net worth stands at $257.8 billion, ranking him as the world’s third-richest person.

He has recently faced backlash over his influence as a billionaire, particularly in neighborhoods where he is building multimillion-dollar estates, including in Palo Alto, California, and on Kauai, Hawaii, according to the New York Post.

Jeff Bezos

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at an interview in 1999. Photo from X

Bezos, founder of Amazon, became a billionaire in 1999 at age 35 as the value of his company shares surged. In 2020, he became the first person ever worth $200 billion.

His wealth was reduced following what remains the most expensive divorce settlement in history. In July 2019, Bezos split from MacKenzie Scott, agreeing to transfer 25% of his Amazon stake, worth $38.3 billion at the time, to her, according to Investopedia.

Bezos, now 61, married former TV personality Lauren Sanchez in a $50 million Venice wedding in May, according to CNBC. As of Aug. 28, he holds a fortune of $241 billion.

Jensen Huang

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo courtesy of Nvidia's Instagram

Nvidia CEO Huang first appeared on Forbes’ billionaire list in 2017 at age 54, according to the New York Post.

His fortune soared alongside Nvidia’s rise, as the company he founded in 1993 became the first to reach a $4 trillion market capitalization in July 2024, helping his net worth surpass the $100 billion mark for the first time.

Nvidia’s growth has created immense wealth for Huang and his executives. "I've created more billionaires on my management team than any CEO in the world," he said at an All-In podcast panel.

Huang’s net worth is about $157.7 billion.

Bill Gates

Young Bill Gates in 1983. Photo from Facebook

Gates became a billionaire in 1987 at age 31, when the value of his Microsoft shares surpassed $1 billion, making him the youngest billionaire at the time—a title Zuckerberg later took in 2008.

If Gates had held on to his Microsoft shares and not devoted to philanthropy, he could now be the world’s first trillionaire with a net worth of $1.2 trillion, three times Musk’s current wealth, as reported by Forbes.

Gates, now 69, pledged in May to donate "virtually all" of his $109.3 billion fortune by 2045 through the Gates Foundation, when it is scheduled to conclude operations.

Since founding the Gates Foundation in 2000, the couple has donated a combined $60.2 billion, making them the second-largest philanthropists in the U.S., after Warren Buffett, Entrepreneur magazine reported.

"People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that 'he died rich' will not be one of them," Gates wrote in a blog post.

His children—Jennifer (29), Rory (26), and Phoebe (22)—will inherit less than 1% of his wealth, a decision Gates explained in a recent interview with Indian podcaster Raj Shamani, as reported by Page Six.