Centibillionaire in the context of 100,000,000,000

William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Following Microsoft's 1986 initial public offering, Gates became the world's then-youngest billionaire in 1987, at age 31. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's wealthiest person for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years consecutively from 1995 to 2007. Gates became the first centibillionaire in 1999, when his net worth briefly surpassed US$100 billion. According to Forbes, as of May 2025, his net worth stood at US$115.1 billion, making him the thirteenth-richest individual in the world.

Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Gates was privately educated at Lakeside School, where he befriended Allen and developed his computing interests. In 1973, he enrolled at Harvard University, where he took classes including Math 55 and graduate level computer science courses, but he dropped out in 1975 to co-found and lead Microsoft. He served as its CEO for the next 25 years and also became president and chairman of the board when the company incorporated in 1981. Succeeded as CEO by Steve Ballmer in 2000, he transitioned to chief software architect, a position he held until 2008. He stepped down as chairman of the board in 2014 and became technology adviser to CEO Satya Nadella and other Microsoft leaders, a position he still holds. He resigned from the board in 2020.

A billionaire is a person whose net worth is at least one billion units of a given currency, typically USD. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultra high-net-worth individual. The American business magazine Forbes produces a global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year and updates an internet version of this list in real time. The American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed billionaire in 1916.

Nineteen individuals had attained the status of centibillionaires, each with a net worth of at least $100 billion, as of October 2025. As of March 2025, there are 3028 billionaires worldwide, with a combined wealth of over $16.1 trillion, up nearly $2 trillion over 2024.

The World's Billionaires is an annual ranking of people who are billionaires, i.e., they are considered to have a net worth of US$1 billion or more, by the American business magazine Forbes. The list was first published in March 1987. The total net worth of each individual on the list is estimated and is cited in United States dollars, based on their documented assets and accounting for debt and other factors. Royalty and dictators whose wealth comes from their positions are excluded from these lists. This ranking is an index of the wealthiest documented individuals, excluding any ranking of those with wealth that is not able to be completely ascertained.

In 2018, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was ranked at the top for the first time and became the first centibillionaire included in the ranking, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who had topped the list 18 of the previous 24 years. In 2022, after topping the list for four years, Bezos was surpassed by Elon Musk. In 2023, Musk was in turn surpassed by French businessman Bernard Arnault, after topping the list for just a year. Arnault became the first French person to top the list. In 2025, Musk once again became the wealthiest man in the list after surpassing Arnault.

Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American businessman and computer scientist who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin. Page is a centibillionaire and among the richest people in the world.

Page was chief executive officer of Google from 1997 until August 2001 when he was succeeded by Eric Schmidt, and then again from April 2011 until July 2015 when he became CEO of its newly formed parent organization Alphabet Inc. He held that post until December 4, 2019, when he and Brin stepped down from all executive positions and day-to-day roles within the company. He remains an Alphabet board member, employee, and controlling shareholder.

Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Брин; born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and businessman who co-founded Google with Larry Page. He was the president of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., until stepping down from the role on December 3, 2019. He and Page remain at Alphabet as co-founders, controlling shareholders, and board members. Brin is a centibillionaire and among the richest people in the world.

Brin immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union at the age of six. He earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Maryland, College Park, following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps by studying mathematics as well as computer science. After graduation, in September 1993, he enrolled in Stanford University to pursue a PhD in computer science. There he met Page, with whom he built a web search engine. The program became popular at Stanford, and he discontinued his PhD studies to start Google in Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park.

Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American centibillionaire businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded the software company Oracle Corporation. He was Oracle's CEO from 1977 to 2014 and is now its CTO and executive chair.

On September 10, 2025, Ellison was briefly the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$393 billion. Ellison is also known for his ownership of 98 percent of the land on Lanai, the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands.

David Ellison (born January 9, 1983) is an American film producer serving as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Paramount Skydance since August 2025. He is the son of Oracle Corporation co-founder Larry Ellison, a centibillionaire.

He founded Skydance Media in 2006, and served as its CEO until 2025, and has produced the films, including Terminator Genisys (2015), Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), Life (2017), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022), with the latter nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.