Steve Ballmer is now richer than Bill Gates, a first for Microsoft employees

Steve Ballmer surpassed Bill Gates on Monday to become the sixth richest person in the world, the first time the former Microsoft Corp. CEO has ever become the sixth richest person in the world. was richer than the company’s co-founder.

The move comes as Microsoft shares hit a new record high, bringing its total gain this year to 21%. The company, through its partnership with OpenAI, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence recovery that has driven the US stock market’s rally.

More than 90% of Ballmer’s $157.2 billion net worth is in Microsoft shares, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Meanwhile, Gates has diversified his $156.7 billion fortune: about half of his wealth is held through Cascade Investment, which was created with proceeds from the sale of Microsoft shares and dividends. He also owns a $21 billion stake in waste management company Republic Services Inc. through Cascade.

Gates, 68, has been slowly reducing his wealth through philanthropy. Along with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates and his friend Warren Buffett, Gates funneled billions of dollars of his personal money to build the $75 billion Gates Foundation, one of the largest charitable organizations in the world.

Since starting the foundation more than two decades ago, Gates and his ex-wife have donated nearly $60 billion of their personal fortunes. French Gates recently stepped down as co-president of the foundation and received $12.5 billion to use for his own charitable purposes.

In 2010, Gates, French Gates and Buffett also founded the Giving Pledge, an organization that encourages the world’s richest people to give away the majority of their wealth during their lifetime or in their will. Ballmer, 68, who has not signed the Giving Pledge, has his own philanthropic work, but nowhere on the scale of Gates.

Gates founded Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen in 1975 and led it until 2000, when Ballmer – one of the company’s first employees – replaced him as CEO. Ballmer retired in 2014 and became Microsoft’s largest shareholder that same year. He bought the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion in 2014, an investment estimated at $4.6 billion today.

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