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The World's Richest Tech Billionaires: Jack Ma Breaks Through to Top, Google Leaders Slip

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Want to join the upper crust of the billionaire ranks? Building a tech company could be your way in: Seven of the world's 15 richest self-made billionaires earned their wealth through a technology business.

FORBES ranked the 15 richest tech billionaires, altogether worth $426 billion. Their wealth is up 11.6% from last year's group.

Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma catapulted into the top echelon of technology after his giant retailer's 2014 IPO more than doubled his net worth to $22.7 billion. Now he's not only the richest man in China, but also also the richest-ever Chinese techie.

China may be on the move but the majority of tech wealth still resides in the U.S. Microsoft's Bill Gates remains in the lead: for the 16th out of the past 21 years, he is not only the richest person in technology, but also the richest person on the planet, with a net worth of $79.2 billion. His wealth grew even as Gates unloaded about a third of his remaining stake in Microsoft over the past year, gifting $1.5 billion to his philanthropic foundation. That helped former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer became the company's single-largest shareholder last year. He's spread some of his wealth, though: Ballmer paid a record $2 billion for the LA Clippers after fellow billionaire Donald Sterling was forced to sell the NBA team due to racist remarks.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison's fortune saw the second-largest gain in the list after Ma's: the value of his publicly traded company helped him gain $6.6 billion this year, putting his total net worth at $54.3 billion.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg also climbed up the ranks as his social network plowed $19 billion in cash and stock into smartphone messaging platform WhatsApp, adding 700 million users to Facebook's subscriber arsenal (and minting two more tech billionaires in the process). Zuckerberg added $4.9 billion to his net worth over the past year.

Google  cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were the only billionaires who rank among the top 15 richest in technology to see their fortunes slashed this year. Each of their fortunes took a $2.6 billion hit as Google stock slipped. Page, who is CEO, is currently worth an estimated $29.7 billion, while Brin, who heads up the elusive Google X division, is worth $29.2 billion. 

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