Steve Ballmer is richer than Bill Gates after Microsoft stock hit a new high. The Windows maker's stock rose 21% in 2024 alone. Thanks to its partnership with OpenAI, the company founded by Gates is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

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Steve Ballmer used to work as an assistant to Bill Gates at Microsoft. Photo: Bloomberg

More than 90 percent of Ballmer’s $157.2 billion net worth is in Microsoft stock, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. Gates, meanwhile, has diversified his $156.7 billion portfolio: about half is held in his investment fund Cascade, and he owns a $21 billion stake in waste management company Republic Services through Cascade.

In fact, Gates, 68, has been steadily losing his fortune through philanthropy. Along with his ex-wife Melina French Gates and billionaire Warren Buffett, Gates has donated billions of dollars to build the Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest charities.

Since its founding more than 20 years ago, Gates and his ex-wife have donated nearly $60 billion of their personal fortune. Recently, French Gates stepped down as co-chair of the foundation and received $12.5 billion to set aside for his own charitable foundation.

In 2010, Gates, French Gates and Buffett founded the Giving Pledge, an organization that encourages billionaires to give away most of their wealth. Ballmer, 68, also does charity work but cannot match the scale of his former boss.

Gates founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975 and led it until 2000, when Ballmer, one of his early employees, replaced him as CEO. Ballmer retired in 2014, the same year he became the company's largest shareholder. He bought the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team for $2 billion in 2014, an estimated $4 billion today.

(According to Bloomberg)