Read previewVirtually all of America's billionaires either founded a wildly successful company or inherited a vast fortune. Apple CEO Tim Cook, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer are among the few exceptions. Ballmer leads the pack with an estimated fortune of $143 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index largely due to his near-4% stake in Microsoft. AdvertisementRemarkably, Ballmer ranks sixth on the Bloomberg list, just one spot and $3 billion behind the Microsoft cofounder. Other industry stalwarts include Meta's former operating chief, Sheryl Sandberg ($2 billion), and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman ($3 billion).

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Persons: —, Tim Cook, Jamie Dimon, Steve Ballmer, Forbes, Bill Gates, Ballmer, Eric Schmidt, Charles Simonyi, Jeff Rothschild, Jeff Skoll, Sheryl Sandberg, Meg Whitman, Justin Sullivan, Snowflake, Frank Slootman, Apple's Cook, Safra Catz, Lisa Su, Ramzi Musallam, JPMorgan's, Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, Tor Peterson, Paul Saville, homebuilder Organizations: Service, Apple, JPMorgan, Business, Bloomberg, Microsoft, Facebook, eBay, Getty Images Tech, Forbes, Oracle, AMD, Veritas Capital, Blackstone, KKR Locations: Silver