Mark Zuckerberg is the hoodie-wearing Harvard dropout who turned a dorm-room project into Facebook and then rebranded it as Meta to bet everything on the future of the metaverse.
Chief Executive Officer
Meta (Facebook)
2004–present
1984-05-13
White Plains, New York, USA
$27 million (2021 compensation, mostly security & benefits)
~13% of Meta
$110 billion
Co-founded Facebook in 2004; Built it into Meta; Dropped out of Harvard
Studied Computer Science & Psychology at Harvard (dropped out)
Harvard University (dropout)
Computer Science; Psychology (incomplete)
Meta (Board of Directors)
Founded Facebook; Pivoted company to Meta; Acquired Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus
Youngest-ever self-made billionaire; Built one of the most influential social networks
Visionary, product-driven, sometimes combative
Privacy scandals (Cambridge Analytica); Criticism over misinformation and monopolistic practices
“Move fast and break things.”
No authored books; subject of many films and biographies
Donated billions via Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (health, education, science)
Martial arts, coding, philanthropy
Learned Mandarin; Competed in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments
Let’s Break It Down…
From boardroom power moves to billion-dollar paydays, this is where the world’s most influential and richest tech CEOs get profiled — complete with career histories, leadership styles, and net worths.
Mark Zuckerberg is the hoodie-wearing Harvard dropout who turned a dorm-room project into Facebook and then rebranded it as Meta to bet everything on the future of the metaverse.
💰 Net Worth: $110 billion
💸 Salary: $27 million (2021 compensation, mostly security & benefits)
As the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman has become one of the most influential figures in modern tech. He helped bring ChatGPT to the mainstream, briefly got ousted by his own board, and came back stronger than ever. Now he’s shaping how AI fits into the future of everything from work to government policy.
💰 Net Worth: $500 million+
💸 Salary: $60,000 (reported base salary; wealth from investments)
Sundar Pichai runs Google, Android, YouTube, and nearly the entire advertising backbone of the internet. He’s not flashy or loud, but his decisions shape how billions of people interact with technology every day. While others chase headlines, Pichai quietly keeps Google in front of the AI arms race.
💰 Net Worth: $1.3 billion
💸 Salary: $226 million (2019 package, mostly stock grants)
Jensen Huang is the co-founder and visionary CEO of NVIDIA, the company that transformed gaming graphics into the backbone of AI and made him one of the most influential figures in modern computing. He also likes leather jackets.
💰 Net Worth: $80 billion
💸 Salary: $34 million (2024 total compensation)
Elon Musk runs Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), Neuralink, and more — and somehow still finds time to launch new startups like xAI. He’s unpredictable, polarizing, and often controversial, but no one in tech has a bigger impact or a higher net worth. Love him or hate him, he’s still the guy everyone watches.
💰 Net Worth: $210 billion
💸 Salary: $56 billion+ (2020 package, performance-based)
Tim Cook is the steady hand behind Apple’s meteoric rise to a $3 trillion company, a supply-chain master turned CEO who swapped Steve Jobs’ showmanship for quiet efficiency, record-breaking profits, and a relentless focus on privacy and sustainability.
💰 Net Worth: $2.4 billion
💸 Salary: $74.6 million (2024 total compensation)