Steve Ballmer, who dropped out of Stanford business school to become the 30th employee at Microsoft, is on the verge of eclipsing his mentor Bill Gates in wealth—thanks to his successor.
A prescient bet on ChatGPT creator OpenAI made by current CEO Satya Nadella has helped to catapult the value of Ballmer’s estimated 4.5% stake in the company. The largest single individual shareholder is now within reaching distance of his mentor as Gates sold the bulk of his Microsoft stock as he shifted his focus to philanthropy.
