American computer programmers

William Henry Gates III 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 initial public offering in 1986 and the subsequent increase in its stock price, 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 February 2026, his net worth stood at US$107.7 billion, making him the 18th-wealthiest individual in the world.

Elon Reeve Musk is a businessman and entrepreneur known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X, and xAI. Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025; as of April 2026, Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$809 billion.

American Internet entrepreneur

Finnish software engineer (born 1969)

American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American businessman, the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company. According to Forbes, as of December 2025, Bezos's estimated net worth is US$239.4 billion, making him the fourth richest person in the world. He was the wealthiest person from 2017 to 2021, according to Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

American computer pioneer, inventor, computer engineer and programmer; co-founder of Apple Inc.

American billionaire businessman (born 1973)

American computer scientist and mathematician (born 1938)

Paul Gardner Allen was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which was followed by the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Allen discovered the wrecks of various famous warships, like the IJN Musashi and USS Indianapolis, and was ranked as one of the richest people in American history by Forbes, with an estimated net worth of $20.3 billion at the time of his death in October 2018.

American computer scientist and United States Navy officer (1906–1992)

American computer programmer and internet-political activist (1986-2013)

Samuel Harris Altman is an American entrepreneur who has been the chief executive officer (CEO) of the AI company OpenAI since 2019.

American computer programmer

Indian-American business executive and CEO of Microsoft

American programmer and computer scientist, co-creator of the Unix operating system (born 1943)

American NASA scientist and mathematician

Chinese scientist and revolutionary (born 1961)

American software entrepreneur and co-founder of Twitter

American computer scientist (born 1940)

American computer programmer and author

American business executive and engineer, former CEO of Yahoo!

American computer programmer (1941-2016)

American co-founder of YouTube (born 1979)

Russian video game designer (born 1955)

British-American programmer and businessman (1945–2021)

American computer scientist, open source developer, entrepreneur (1973-2015)

British-American scientist and businessman (born 1959)

Hungarian-American computer software executive (born 1948)

founder of Yahoo!

American singer-songwriter (1941–1994)

American computer scientist (1945–2020)

American mathematician (1930–2026)

American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer

American computer programmer and technology executive

African-American mathematician

American computer scientist and entrepreneur (1942–1994)

American computer programmer and entrepreneur (born 1983)

Co-founder and CEO of Roblox Corporation

American computer scientist

American computer scientist

American businessman

Ukrainian-born American entrepreneur, co-founder of WhatsApp

American ENIAC computer programmer (1924–2011)

American businessman

Irish computer programmer (1921-2006)

American politician (born 1957)

American blogger; co-founder of Twitter

American computer programmer (1917–2001)

American mathematician and rocket scientist

American programmer, creator of BitTorrent protocol

Mexican free software developer

English-American programmer, venture capitalist, and essayist

American computer scientist, inventor and technology businessman (1940–2023)

Irish-American author and publisher

programmer for the ENIAC computer

first American woman to receive a PhD in computer science (1913-1985); simultaneously with Irving Tang first American to receive PhD in computer science, nun

American computer scientist

American entrepreneur

American businessman