For a few crazy days in April William Gates III crossed an extraordinary landmark. As the Dow Jones Index rocketed and Microsoft's stock climbed to giddy heights, Gates became the first man in history to be worth more than $100 billion. Since then the market has paused to take a breath but Gates is still worth a stupendous $90 billion. That's up from $51 billion last year.
Step back to 1990 when Microsoft was still writing its programmes for growth. Bill Gates was a mid-ranking billionaire but he was outstripped by old money and Japanese land barons who were getting rich the old-fashioned way. The world's richest man was Yoshiaki Tsutsumi who, with the Seibu Railway network and property in downtown Tokyo, was worth $16 billion. In second place was Taikichiro Mori ($14.5 billion), another Japanese real estate magnate. Old money was represented by the Du Ponts ($10 billion), one of the most venerable names in American industry who were in fourth place.
How the world has changed in 1999. Japan and the Nikkei Index are in the doldrums and Yoshiaki Tsutsumi is only worth $4 billion. But as the Nikkei staggers along from one depressing year to another, the Dow Jones is breaking all the records and looking back at the 10000 mark. The soaring Dow has created extraordinary wealth in its wake. According to Forbes magazine, more than 200 Americans are now billionaires. Some, like Jay Walker, who founded a start-up named Priceline.com, have beco-me richer than their wildest dreams in an impossibly short time. Walker went public one year ago and he now owns stock worth $10 billion.
It has been the year of the Internet and the software billionaire, according to Forbes. Seven of the world's top 10 richest people are Americans and four of these are computer industry barons who turned their visions into on-screen reality. From Microsoft there's Bill Gates, Paul Allen ($30 billion, Ranking: 3rd) and company CEO Steven Ballmer ($19 billion. Ranking: 4th) Another newcomer is marketing whiz Michael Dell of Dell Computers. Dell is 34-years-old, worth $16.5 billion, and he aims to overhaul industry leader Compaq.
Move down the charts and the same computer screens-to-riches story is repeated all the way. There are the old-timers of the computer age like George Moore of Intel ($10.9 billion) and William Hewlett ($5 billion) who've seen their holdings spiral suddenly. Then, there are the smart new kids on the block like America Online's Steve Case ($1.6 billion) and John Morgridge of Cisco Systems ($1.6 billion). There's also the stockmarket's
