Steve Ballmer’s $120 billion fortune makes him richer than Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, and Google’s cofounders. The former Microsoft CEO can thank AI hype and a contract quirk.

• Steve Ballmer is richer than Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin.
• The former Microsoft CEO is worth $120 billion, thanks to his estimated 4% stake in the company.
• Ballmer sticks out among the world’s wealthiest people because he isn’t a founder or a current boss.

Steve Ballmer is wealthier than Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, and the cofounders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin — even though he didn’t found Microsoft and stepped down as its CEO nearly a decade ago.

Ballmer’s estimated $120 billion fortune ranks him sixth on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. He’s an anomaly among the top 10 wealthiest people, who either started their flagship companies — Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Zuckerberg, Brin, and Page — or still run them today — Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Buffett.