The billionaires club is one of the most exclusive on the planet—but making it into the top 10, among the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, is a tough fight. Michael Dell made billions in late June, yet it still wasn’t enough to break into that elite echelon.
The Dell Technologies founder sold $1.2 billion worth of his shares in the company on June 27, reducing his stake by 3% but adding a pretty penny to his bank account. Dell was the 12th richest person in the world that day with a fortune of $135.4 billion—according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
As of July 6, the 60-year-old tech entrepreneur is now worth a whopping $138 billion, just $1 billion shy of Nvidia cofounder Jensen Huang, and ranked at number 11 on the list.
Bill Gates is partially to thank for Dell’s rise up the list—the Microsoft cofounder’s choice to offload tens of billions of his money to charity—and took Dells’ previously ranking at number 12, while falling seven spots down. To put that drop into context, Gates was the fifth richest person alive on July 3, highlighting the fierce (and sometimes erratic) battle to make it to the top 10.
Fortune reached out to Dell for comment.
Can Dell overthrow Huang?
Dell and Nvidia are both frontrunners in the technology industry—from developing and selling IT products, to manufacturing GPUs—and there’s no telling how the AI revolution will boost their fortunes. Because of the tech explosion, both of the CEOs’ fortunes have swelled over the last year, with Huang reaping $24.8 billion, and Dell raking in $14 billion.
Whether Dell can top Huang depends on how their businesses thrive, alongside how they handle their shares. Dell still holds a $39 billion stake in the company—estimated to be around 40% of the business—after offloading 10 million of his shares. Plus, the computing giant is thriving, with its stock up more than 9% since late May after shares beat analysts’ projected profit of $9.21 a share by hitting $9.40.
Meanwhile, as of late June, Huang owns more than 800 million shares in his company—he sold $15 million worth last month, on track of his plan to sell as many as 6 million shares worth $873 million by the end of the year. Nvidia stock is also up 9% this year, and has skyrocketed up more than 800% since December 2022.
It’ll be a tough fight between the two tech titans to see who can be in the upper echelons of the world’s wealthiest. Both Dell and Nvidia are performing above estimates, so it could ultimately boil down to who sells more shares sooner.
It’s not clear why Dell cashed in on his stock, or whether he has more plans to do so—but last year, he similarly sold 20 million shares for $2.3 billion out of the blue for the first time since 1999.
Other CEOs climbing up—and falling down—the exclusive billionaires list
Dell isn’t the only billionaire who is climbing the ranks of the world’s richest people this year. Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison enjoyed a massive wealth surge last month, which skyrocketed him right below his close friend Elon Musk.
After Oracle’s stellar earnings report in June, Ellison’s net worth shot up $40 billion in just a few days. The cloud-computing entrepreneur has about 41% of his company’s shares in his name, which triggered a $25 billion fortune increase on Thursday June 12, and another $16 billion on Friday June 13. He enjoyed the number two spot with a $250.9 billion fortune—now boasting $253 billion as of July 6—but has since been knocked down to third by Zuckerberg, who has a slightly larger $254 billion net worth.
The list has been shaken up in other ways as well. In January of this year, many billionaires were enjoying a honeymoon period of wealth; ultra-wealthy leaders Musk, Zuckerberg, and Ellison were riding a wealth surge of $10 billion daily. In total, the collective fortune of the world’s richest people saw their honey pot swell by $314 billion. At the beginning of February, Musk’s net worth stood at $433 billion, Zuckerberg had $243 billion, and Bezos boasted $256 billion.
But things can turn on a dime; AI revolutionary DeepSeek’s explosive entrance into the market reportedly wiped almost $100 billion from the bank accounts of America’s richest tech titans.
