Steve Ballmer
 Ballmer in 2007. Photo: see the file page on Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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| Net worth | $126 billion Forbes 2026 list, March 24, 2026[1] |
|---|---|
| World rank | 15th (Forbes 2026)[1] |
| Source of wealth | Microsoft |
| Companies | Microsoft (CEO 2000–2014); Los Angeles Clippers (owner); Ballmer Group |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Born | March 24, 1956, Detroit, Michigan, US |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) |
| Known for | Running Microsoft; owning the Los Angeles Clippers |
| Net worth figures are estimates by the source named and change every day. | |
Steve Ballmer is an American businessman who ran Microsoft as chief executive from 2000 to 2014 and owns the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team.[2] On the Forbes 2026 billionaires list, a snapshot taken on March 24, 2026, he was 15th in the world with an estimated $126 billion.[1]
Net worth
- February 2026: about $145 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[2]
- March 2026: $126 billion, 15th on the Forbes list.[1]
Most of it is Microsoft stock; in December 2023 CNN estimated he would collect about $1 billion a year in Microsoft dividends.[2]
How the fortune was made
Ballmer grew up in Detroit, where his father was a manager at Ford.[2] At Harvard he lived down the hall from Bill Gates.[2] In 1980 he left Stanford's business school to join Microsoft with an 8% stake, most of it paid for out of Gates's own share.[2] He became president in 1998 and took over from Gates as chief executive on January 13, 2000.[2]
While he ran Microsoft, its yearly revenue grew from $25 billion to $70 billion, though its share price stood still.[2] He built new businesses including data centers and Xbox and bought Skype.[2] He retired in February 2014 and was followed by Satya Nadella.[2]
In 2014 he bought the Los Angeles Clippers for about $2 billion and later paid for their new arena, the Intuit Dome.[2]
Giving
In 2015 he and his wife, Connie, started Ballmer Group to help children from poor families get ahead.[2] They have given large gifts to the University of Oregon, including $425 million in 2022 for a children's mental health institute, and about $60 million to Harvard's computer science department.[2]
Photos
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Ballmer at Mobile World Congress, 2010. Photo: Aanjhan Ranganathan, CC BY 2.0
All photos are from Wikimedia Commons; click a photo for its full credit and license.
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Forbes, "Steve Ballmer", 2026 World's Billionaires list (snapshot of March 24, 2026), read November 3, 2026. Net worth is a Forbes estimate.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Wikipedia, "Steve Ballmer", read November 3, 2026. Billionaire Wiki's text is written in its own words; facts are checked against this article and its sources.