Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Jeff Bezos are among some of the wealthiest tech tycoons here in the U.S.
But there are plenty of extremely wealthy tech executives across the globe who are making major contributions to tech scenes in their own country.
With the help of Forbes’ Billionaires List, we’ve rounded up the wealthiest tech tycoons in 14 countries across the globe. They’ve each played a major role in technological advances around the world, and they’ve raked in billions doing it.
Brazil: Eduardo Saverin
Net worth: $4.3 billion
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Forbes ranking: 375
Background: Eduardo Saverin became a billionaire after cofounding Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg. He was born in Brazil but attended school in the U.S. before renouncing his American citizenship and moving to Singapore in 2012. He still owns about 53 million shares of Facebook stock and spends his time as an angel investor.
Canada: David Cheriton
Net worth: $3.1 billion
Forbes ranking: 578
Background: Vancouver native David Cheriton, a professor in Stanford’s computer science department, became one of the first investors in Google after Larry Page and Sergey Brin did a demo of their project on his front porch in 1998. That early investment has obviously paid off, but Cheriton doesn’t like to flaunt his wealth. He also cofounded Arista Networks with Andy Bechtolsheim.
China: Ma Huateng
Net worth: $14.4 billion
Forbes ranking: 78
Background: Ma Huateng is the founder and CEO of Tencent, China’s largest publicly traded Internet company. Tencent created the mobile messaging app WeChat, which now has more than 270 million users. Ma is now the second-wealthiest person in China.
France: Xavier Niel
Net worth: $9.8 billion
Forbes ranking: 133
Background: Xavier Niel is a college dropout who made his first fortune when the Internet provider he developed sold for $50 million in 1993. He has become $1 billion richer in the past year alone thanks to the rise in the share price of Iliad, the parent company of his telecom venture.
Germany: Hasso Plattner
Net worth: $8.8 billion
Forbes ranking: 154
Background: Hasso Plattner joined four former IBM colleagues to found German software company SAP in 1972. Last year, he signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give at least half of his wealth to philanthropy. Plattner owns a superyacht called “Morning Glory” as well as a luxury golf course in South Africa.
India: Azim Premji
Net worth: $15.2 billion
Forbes ranking: 70
Background: Azim Premji is the chairman of Wipro, an IT consulting and software company based in Bangalore. Premji is the wealthiest tech tycoon in India, but he also happens to be the biggest philanthropist in all of Asia, having given away $4.4 billion worth of Wipro shares.
Israel: Gil Shwed
Net worth: $1.8 billion
Forbes ranking: 1032
Background: Gil Shwed is the CEO of Check Point Software Technologies, one of Israel’s biggest technology companies. The firm’s stock value continues to rise, increasing by 30% in the last year alone. According to Forbes, Shwed’s hobbies include photography and cooking.
Japan: Hiroshi Mikitani
Net worth: $8.1 billion
Forbes ranking: 175
Background: Hiroshi Mikitani is the CEO and chairman of Rakuten, Japan’s largest e-commerce site. He’s made several gutsy moves in the past few years, spending a total of $2 billion buying Buy.com, Play.com, and a $100 million share in Pinterest.
Malaysia: Goh Peng Ooi
Net worth: $1.5 billion
Forbes ranking: 1213
Background: Goh Peng Ooi went on to found Silverlake Axis, a financial services software company, after spending nearly a decade at IBM in the U.S. Silverlake is now the top banking software provider in Malaysia.
Singapore: Jason Chang
Net worth: $3 billion
Forbes ranking: 581
Background: Jason Chang is the chairman of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, the largest semiconductor-packaging company in the world. Though he was born in Singapore, he currently lives in Taiwan and has made significant real estate investments in China.
South Korea: Kim Jung-Ju
Net worth: $1.8 billion
Forbes ranking: 998
Background: Kim Jung-Ju created one of the world’s first online games, “The Kingdom of the Winds,” in 1996. He now runs Nexon, South Korea’s largest online gaming company.
Taiwan: Terry Gou
Net worth: $7.1 billion
Forbes ranking: 199
Background: Terry Gou is the chairman and founder of Foxconn, a Taiwanese company that manufactures electronics for tech companies like Apple. Foxconn is the largest private employer in China and one of the largest supply chain manufacturers in the world.
United Kingdom: Michael Lynch
Net worth: $1 billion
Forbes ranking: 1545
Background: Though the deal is currently under investigation by the U.K. Serious Fraud Office and the U.S. Department of Justice, Michael Lynch became a billionaire when his software company Autonomy was purchased by Hewlett-Packard in 2011. He currently leads a British venture capital firm called Invoke Capital.
United States: Bill Gates
Net worth: $79 billion
Forbes ranking: 2
Background: Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates has topped Forbes’ list of the wealthiest people in the world for 15 of the last 20 years. He’s spent the last few years focusing on philanthropic work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and has convinced more than 100 of the world’s wealthiest people to donate at least half of their fortune as part of the Giving Pledge.
This story originally appeared on Business Insider. Copyright 2014
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