Steve Ballmer becomes fifth richest person in the world

The former assistant to Bill Gates at Microsoft is now the fifth richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg’s list of billionaires, and he is only one place separated from Gates on the current list of the richest people in the world.

The fortune of Steve Ballmer, who joined Microsoft as an employee at the age of 24 in 1980, has ballooned over the past year to about $117 billion, according to Bloomberg data on Tuesday. This number is only about $5 billion less than Gates’ net worth, estimated at $122 billion. Gates has donated large sums of money as part of his charitable efforts since his departure from Microsoft.

Ballmer’s billions put him in fifth place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and his wealth has increased by more than $30 billion since the beginning of the year. Only Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates are ahead of Ballmer. Willie Palmer is on the world’s richest list, along with Larry Ellison, Warren Buffett, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sergey Brin.

Ballmer is considered unique on the list in that he is the only one who did not establish a major business empire

Ballmer attended Harvard University, where he met Gates. While Gates dropped out to start Microsoft, Ballmer graduated in 1977 with a degree in applied mathematics and economics.

Ballmer began his career at Microsoft as an assistant to the president nearly four decades ago, although his role at the time was more of a business manager for the fast-growing software maker. He rose through the ranks to eventually become its president and then CEO, succeeding Gates. Ballmer stepped down as CEO in 2014, the same year he purchased the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team.