Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are now worth more than $100B each

(Image credit: James Leynse (via Getty Images))

2021 has been a pretty crappy year so far for most people, but not Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (via The Guardian), each of them has "earned" more than $20 billion so far this year—remembering that today is April 12, so we're not even four months in yet—which affords them entry into the ultra-exclusive club of people who are worth at least $100 billion.

There are eight men in the world with a total net worth of at least $100 billion based on Bloomberg’s estimation, and Page and Brin are actually far from the top of the charts, although you have to think that such rankings become entirely irrelevant once you're past your first $10 billion or so.

Anyway, here's the list:

Jeff Bezos - $197 billion
Elon Musk - $175 billion
Bill Gates - $145 billion
Bernard Arnault - $132 billion
Mark Zuckerberg - $118 billion
Larry Page - $104 billion
Warren Buffet - $101 billion
Sergey Brin - $100 billion

All but two are members of the tech industry. The exceptions are Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, and Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffet. Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, another tech industry titan, is next in line to join the club, although with a piddling net worth of just $92.2 billion, he's still got some ground to make up.

Page and Brin stepped down from their positions as CEO and president of Google parent company Alphabet Inc in December 2019, but they retain ultimate control over the company as its majority shareholders. Alphabet itself has also seen a significant rise in value year-to-date, climbing from a little over $1700 per share at the beginning of January to $2244 today.

Its gaming ambitions have not fared quite so well, however: Earlier this year, Google closed Stadia’s internal development studios, and shortly after that it was the target of a class action lawsuit over its claim that games like Doom Eternal and Destiny 2 would run at 4K 60fps on the streaming service—which, for the record, they do not.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.