As of 2021, the Richest Programmer in the World is Elon Musk with a worth $158 Billion. Elon Musk developed two websites/ softwares (X.com and Zip2) which provided Elon enough money to venture into his engineering interests (Tesla and SpaceX).
Notable rich programmers:
- Elon Musk worth $158 Billion (developed Zip2 and X.com)
- Bill Gates worth $120 Billion (developed Microsoft Windows)
- Larry Page worth $78.1 Billion (developed Google Search)
- Sergey Brin worth $63.9 Billion (developed Google Search)
- Satoshi Nakamoto worth $19.6 Billion
- Patrick Collison and John Collison with a worth of $3.2 Billion each (developed Stripe)
- Markus Persson worth $2 Billion (developed Minecraft and Mojang)
- Rasmus Lerdorf worth $1.4 Billion (developed PHP)
- Vitalik Buterin worth $500 Million (developed Ethereum)
- Steve Wozniak worth $100 Million (developed Apple software stack)
Name: Elon Musk
Worth: $158 Billion
Developed: Zip2 and X.com (PayPal)
Elon Musk developed Zip2 in 1995 which was an online city guide and attempted to replace Yellow Pages. He implemented this in Java. He sold Zip2 in 1999 for $307 Million and received $22 Million for his share.
In 1999, Elon founded X.com as an online Banking system and invested $10 Million from Zip2. He sold X.com to $1.5 Billion and received $165 Million for his share.
He used the financial resources to fund his engineering interests like Tesla and SpaceX.
Name: Bill Gates
Worth: $120 Billion
Developed: BASIC, MS DOS, Windows
Bill Gates is a successful technologist and Business man having founded the 2nd most valuable company (Microsoft) and remained in the top 3 richest person in the World for over 2 decades.
Bill Gates developed BASIC Interpreter, MS-DOS and played key role in designing/ acquiring the initial software of Microsoft.
Bill Gates is a exceptional programmer who used his skills to create a Technology empire which is continuing to shine even after 3 decades.
Name: Larry Page
Worth: $78.1 Billion
Developed: Google Search
Larry Page is well known as the founder of Google and the original developer of Google Search Engine which made it great compared to previous search engines. The algorithm was named after him as Page Rank.
Google Search is responsible for nearly 75% of Google's revenue and is a core part of the wealth of Larry Page.
Name: Sergey Brin
Worth: $63.9 Billion
Developed: Google Search
Sergey Brin is the co-founder of Google and also, one of the key developers of the Google Search Engine.
He is worth $63.9 Billion and is slightly lower than Larry Page mainly attributing to other reasons.
Name: Satoshi Nakamoto
Worth: $19.6 Billion
Developed: Bitcoin
Satoshi Nakamoto is an anonymous identity and is mainly, indicated towards the person who developed Bitcoin. Satoshi was accompanied by Gavin Andresen, who is worth $2 Million dollars, as a developer of Bitcoin.
Name: Patrick Collison; John Collison
Worth: $3.2 Billion each
Developed: Stripe
Patrick Collison and John Collison, the two brothers made headlines when their company, Stripe broke through into Technology Finance Industry. They were the core developers of the entire system.
Their programming skills were demonstrated well before Stripe and made small success previously.
Both Patrick Collison and John Collison are worth $3.2 Billion each.
Name: Markus Persson
Worth: $2 Billion
Developed: Minecraft and Mojang
Markus Persson is a game developer and is best known for developing Minecraft in 2009. He formed Mojang as a parent company for Minecraft. Minecraft is the most viewed gameplay in YouTube as of 2020.
Other notable games developed by Markus Persson are Caller's Bane, 0x10c, Breaking the Tower and many other games.
Mojang was acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 Billion.
Name: Rasmus Lerdorf
Worth: $1.4 Billion
Developed: PHP
Rasmus Lerdorf is a programmer and was the original developer of PHP programming language in 1995. He continues to design key features of PHP. PHP is the most used Programming Language and powers 70% of the Internet.
Rasmus made other notable contributions to Apache HTTP Server and SQL DBMS. He worked as a developer at several notable companies such as Yahoo and Etsy.
Name: Vitalik Buterin
Worth: $500 Million
Developed: Ethereum
Vitalik Buterin is a programmer who developed Ethereum, a blockchain cryptocurrency. He launched Ethereum in 2014.
He is worth $500 Million and is originally, due to the exponential growth of cryptocurrency.
Name: Steve Wozniak
Worth: $100 Million
Developed: Apple Software Stack
Steve Wozniak is the original developer of Apple systems and is the less known co-founder of Apple. Apple became the biggest Technology company in the World in terms of Market Capitalization.
He developed Apple 1 in 1975 and Apple II in 1977 and contributed major design ideas in Macintosh from 1979 to 1981. He left Apple in 1985.
He has a worth of $100 Million and is considered one of the original great Programmers.
