Quiz: Can you name these 20 tech billionaires?

2

Who can forget this Microsoft figurehead going absolutely crazy on stage during a keynote? It's easily one of the most famous internet moments from the early 2000s, despite the fact that he later caused Microsoft to make a few bad investments.

One of his most famous freakouts was shortly before he retired, after which Microsoft stock rebounded.

Image: CNET

3

This amazingly named German was a Sun Microsystems cofounder and the first major investor in Google. He wrote Google's founders a check for $100,000 before they had even incorporated and encouraged them to stick with the name Google.

His 1998 investment in Google has earned him nearly $2 billion.

Image: Sun Microsystems

4

The man behind Salesforce has been one of the leading minds in cloud computing for a while. He is also very politically outspoken, threatening to pull business investments from Indiana and Georgia due to anti-LGBT laws.

Image: Getty

5

This tech billionaire started off as a computer scientist on Wall Street. He gave up on that job after just a few years and headed west to Seattle, where he founded his massive Amazon empire in a garage.

He's a notorious micromanager who's hypercompetitive business model has lead to some criticism in recent years. That doesn't stop Amazon from continuing to grow, however.

Image: James Martin/CNET

6

This soviet-born computer scientist is half of the brain trust behind Google. His contribution to the development of the search engine that would become Google was a data mining system.

He now serves as the president of Alphabet, Inc., where he draws only a dollar in yearly salary. He doesn't really need it.

Image: James Martin/CNET

7

This entrepreneur started off as a premed student at the University of Texas before realizing his future lay in computing.

Later founding Dell, he oversaw years of success as a consumer brand before all but vanishing into the world of business. He personally bid to take Dell out of the market and back to private status, which was official in 2013.

Image: Getty

8

Founder of tech giant Oracle, this billionaire has been in the industry since 1977. He's also quite adventurous, winning yachting championships with Oracle Team USA and being an avid pilot.

He isn't the CEO of Oracle anymore: He now serves as the CTO and executive chairman.

Image: James Martin/CNET

9

It wouldn't be a list of tech giants without including this Valve founder and Steam creator. Easily one of the most recognizable geeks in the world, he started his work in the tech world as part of the team that built the first three versions of Windows.

We're all still waiting for Half Life 3, but that doesn't mean we hate this god of the PC gaming world.

Image: CNET

10

This Microsoft magnate is currently the richest man in the tech industry, though others are catching up. He's also one of the leading philanthropists in the country and six years ago signed a pledge to give away half his wealth to charitable causes.

Image: Getty

11

One half of the team behind WhatsApp, he was born in Ukraine before moving to Mountain View, CA, at 16.

WhatsApp was bought by Facebook in 2014, which landed him solidly in the category of "billionaire." He now works at Facebook and remains the CEO of WhatsApp.

Image: Stephen Shankland/CNET

12

This Chinese tech giant founded Alibaba, China's answer to Amazon. Alibaba is now an international giant that had a New York Stock Exchange IPO valued at over $20 billion--the largest in NYSE history.

Image: Getty

13

One of five founders of Facebook, he's been reported by Forbes to be the youngest billionaire in history. He has since left Facebook, investing in other tech projects, like Asana and Path.

He now works primarily in philanthropy through his organization Good Ventures. He and his wife are also avid Burning Man attendees.

Image: Getty

14

One of the most popular names in technology, this billionaire is the cofounder of Tesla Motors, the founder of Space-X, and cofounder of OpenAI, SolarCity, and Zip2.

He's definitely made some good investments in the past few years and holds some unusual beliefs as well: For example, he thinks we're "likely" living in a computer simulation.

Image: Getty

15

He became a billionaire at the young age of 31 when his creation eBay had its IPO. He has since left eBay to pursue journalistic endeavours. He is currently the CEO of Honolulu Civil Beat, which has partnered with HuffPost to launch HuffPost's Hawaii edition.

Image: Martin Lamonica/CNET

16

This Michigan native is one of the cofounders of Google, which has made him the 11th richest person in the world. He is now the CEO of Alphabet, under which Google falls, and is also the creator of Google's SEO algorithm PageRank.

Image: James Martin/CNET

17

This Brazil-born cofounder of Facebook has been the target of some criticism since earning his fortune: He renounced his US citizenship in 2011, which was largely seen as a way to avoid paying over $700 million in corporate gains tax.

Image: CNET

18

This former Google CEO now serves as the executive chairman of Alphabet, Inc. He's held positions on various executive boards over the years at places like Carnegie Mellon and Princeton universities as well.

He started his career in IT, later becoming Sun Microsystems' first software manager. He joined Google after interviewing directly with its two founders and has had a home there ever since.

Image: Getty

19

This PayPal cofounder was also the first outside investor in Facebook, where he still retains a board seat. He's also responsible for several Lord Of The Rings-themed ventures, such as Mithril Capital Management, Valar Ventures, and Palantir.

Image: Getty

20

This Harvard dropout is one of the youngest tech successes in Silicon Valley, having grown FaceBook from a tiny "Hot-Or-Not" clone to the biggest social media platform on the planet.

While his early years may be the subject of some controversy, this social media master is now a dedicated philanthropist, having pledged to give most of his wealth away during his lifetime.

Image: James Martin/CNET

The Answers

Here are the solutions - how did you do?

1. Paul Allen

2. Steve Ballmer

3. Andreas von Bechtolsheim

4. Marc Benioff

5. Jeff Bezos

6. Sergey Brin

7. Michael Dell

8. Larry Ellison

9. Gabe Newell

10. Bill Gates

11. Jan Koum

12. Jack Ma

13. Dustin Moskovitz

14. Elon Musk

15. Pierre Omidyar

16. Larry Page

17. Eduardo Saverin

18. Eric Schmidt

19. Peter Thiel

20. Mark Zuckerberg

Image: iStock/AntonioGuillem