The programmers, often known as software engineers or developers, are at the forefront of change. They build technology that will have an impact on society in ways that are yet impossible to foresee. But who are these programmers? This article will feature 5 of the world's wealthiest programmers.

1. Elon Musk

Elon Musk is a business tycoon best known for his electric car company, Tesla Motors. Musk was born in South Africa and, when he was 17, moved to Canada. He attended Queen’s University for college and later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania where he completed degrees in both economics and physics.

Elon later shortly after co-founded Zip2 with his brother Kimbal which provided online sales technology to newspaper companies. Next, Elon moved on to found the websites Paypal (with Peter Thiel) and SpaceX.

Net Worth: $203B

Age: 50

Companies and Products: Zip2, X.com(Now PayPal), OpenAI, SpaceX, Tesla Inc, Nueralink

2. Bill Gates

Bill Gates owes his success to the Microsoft empire he created with his partner Paul Allen. Though retired from active management of Microsoft, Gates remains chairman of its board. He has been in the industry for over 40 years and he co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975. He stepped down as CEO in former 2008 and the current CEO is Satya Nadella.

Gates has risen to the top of the Forbes list. From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world every year except from 2010 to 2013. In October 2017, this changed and he is now surpassed by Jeff Bezos.

Net Worth: $128B

Company: Microsoft

3. Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the co-founder of Oracle Corporation, a multinational computer technology corporation. Larry Ellison is the founder of Oracle Corporation, the world's largest enterprise software company.

While working at Ampex in the 1970s, he became influenced by Edgar F. Codd's research on relational database design. That led to the formation of Oracle, a successful database vendor to mid-and low-range systems. Oracle became a successful database vendor in the 1980s, selling to mid-range and low-range systems. Later, Oracle competed with Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server. This led to Ellison being listed in Forbes as one of the richest people in the world.

Net Worth: $118B

Company: Oracle

4. Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook, the largest social media network in existence. He also co-founded Napster, create an early file-sharing site that became notorious for spreading music piracy. He earned his first million at age 12 through creating and selling his very own game called “Zuckerturds”. After founding the more successful one of the two companies he had created, he dropped out of Harvard and created Facebook with superiority and over 500 employees.

Net Worth: $118B

Company: Facebook

5. Larry Page

Lawrence Edward Page is a business magnate, computer scientist, and internet entrepreneur. He is best known as one of the co-founders of Google. Alongside Sergey Brin, he helped create Google, marking him as one of the most influential figures in technology.

Pageonce served as CEO of Google from 1997 until August 2001. He then became CEO of Alphabet and is still a board member and employee.

Company: Google