Everyone loves to hate on billionaires — unless they make you money, too. And some billionaire's fountains of wealth have paid off better than others for investors.
It turns out Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, key founders of the Microsoft software success story, enriched public investors with more stock market gains in the past five years than any other billionaires, says an analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSmith. All told, holders of Microsoft shares in the public's hands gained more than $1.7 trillion in the past half decade. No other ownable stake in any other of the top billionaires ranked by Forbes associated with a U.S. public company comes close.
What about Elon Musk's Tesla? It's true investors are up an impressive $1 trillion holding the electric-car makers' shares in the past five years. It's a "millionaire maker" stock for sure. But keep in mind Musk holds nearly 17% of the company for himself. And that means the maximum gain in the public's hands is "just" $848.5 billion, or less than half what public Microsoft investors have made.
"Selfish" billionaires are now a prime target in Washington D.C. Billionaires would face "the highest personal income tax rate in the developed world under the newest proposal from the White House that would dramatically raise the rates paid by well-off Americans," said CEO of Engineered Tax Services Julio Gonzales.
But it turns out some billionaires are better than others at putting money into other people's pockets, too.
Billionaires Creating The Most Value For The Public
Billionaires who take their companies public and sell shares allow the public to participate in their wealth-generation. And it's more common than you might think.
Nine of the 10 billionaires who made the bulk of their money from U.S. publicly traded stocks own less than 20% of the companies now. That means more than 80% of the ownership is up for grabs by anyone involved in the stock market. The only exception is Larry Ellison's Oracle. The eighth richest person in the world still clings onto more than 40% of the company.
It's not just day traders and speculators owning a piece of billionaires' creations.
Just look at Microsoft, the top wealth generator for public investors in the past five years. Gates and Ballmer, surprisingly, don't hold meaningful stakes in the company they founded in 1975. That means nearly all of the $1.7 trillion in wealth the company created in the past five years is up for grabs. And the top holders are literally the public. Money manager to the masses, Vanguard, owns 8.2% of the software giant. That's a larger stake than anyone. In fact, all five top owners are leading providers of mutual funds often found in 401(k) and retirement plans.
Rounding Out The Big Bets On Billionaires
The Google founders reluctantly took their company public, now known as Alphabet, in 2004. But anyone who jumped on lately is glad they did.
Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page only own 5.6% and 5.9% shares respectively, of the online search engine giant. That means they each allowed other investors to make more than $1.1 trillion in the stock in just the last five years. Page is still the No. 2 largest holder and Brin is No. 4. But that still makes room for Vanguard to be the No. 1 holder with more than 6.6% of the company. And ETF giants BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors are close behind as No. 3 and No. 5.
And for as much flak as Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos takes for his less-than-generous philanthropy, he's made room for others to participate at least. As he now owns less than 10% of the online shopping giant, that leaves more than 90% in the hands of other investors (including his famously philanthropic former wife, MacKenzie Scott). Any investors who owned shares not held by Bezos himself are collectively up more than $1 trillion in just five years.
If you own some of those shares, you might be thankful Bezos didn't cling onto all of them.
Riding Billionaires' Coattails
Top five-year market value gains on U.S.-listed shares of companies associated with billionaires held by the public
| Billionaire | Fortune affiliated with | Net worth ($ billions) | Stock % ch 5-year | % owned by others | Value gained by other investors ($ trillions | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bill Gates | Microsoft | $129 | 352.5% | Almost 100% | $1.7 | Information Technology |
| Steve Ballmer | Microsoft | 91.4 | 352.5 | Almost 100% | $1.7 | Information Technology |
| Sergey Brin | Alphabet | 107 | 217.1 | 94.4 | $1.1 | Communication Services |
| Larry Page | Alphabet | 111 | 217.1 | 94.1 | $1.1 | Communication Services |
| Jeff Bezos | Amazon.com | 171 | 245.9 | 90.2 | $1.0 | Consumer Discretionary |
| Elon Musk | Tesla | 219 | 1,603.1 | 83.3 | $0.84 | Consumer Discretionary |
| Warren Buffett | Berkshire Hathaway | 118 | 112.4 | 83.8 | $0.31 | Financials |
| Jim Walton | Walmart | 66.2 | 116.1 | 99.6 | $0.21 | Consumer Staples |
| Mark Zuckerberg | Meta Platforms | 67.3 | 58.7 | 87.2 | $0.18 | Communication Services |
| Larry Ellison | Oracle | 106 | 83.1 | 57.3 | $0.19 | Information Technology |
