Bill Gates ranked tops (surprise!) in Forbes’ newest list of the top 400 richest Americans with a commanding $59 billion. Half of the ten wealthiest earned their billions from the tech industry.Among those that made the $1.3 billion cutoff were five Googlers (GOOG), including employee #12 Omid Kordestani and early investor Ram Shriram. Three of Silicon Valley’s most influential VCs made the super rich list:  Kleiner Perkins” L. John Doerr and Vinod Khosla and Sequoia Capital’s Michael Moritz. The Valley’s most revered entrepreneur, Steve Jobs (APPL), made the No. 56 slot with $5.7 billion.
But striking it rich through tech is still a small and elite business. Just 10 percent of those on the list make their billions that way. Compare that to nearly 5 percent who make money by inheriting it. Here’s a look at the ten richest tech titans and their staggering net worth.

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