Apple boss Tim Cook joins billionaires club
Apple's chief executive Tim Cook is now a billionaire thanks to the company's rising share price.
<p>The 59-year-old's wealth was calculated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as Apple's share price has soared during his time in charge, from around $53 (£40) to more than $450 (£343) today.</p><p>He joined the technology giant in 1998 at the request of Steve Jobs, who he replaced as chief executive in 2011.</p><p></p><p>Mr Cook owns more than 847,000 Apple shares directly, worth more than $381m (£291m).</p><p>Proceeds from previous share sales, dividends and other compensation add another $650m (£497m) to his net worth, according to calculations by Bloomberg.</p><p>Last year Mr Cook was paid $125m (£95m), the majority of which came in the form of vested shares. His basic salary is $3m (£2.3m).</p><p>Chief executives of other tech companies, including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, have a <strong><a href="https://news.sky.com/story/facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-is-now-worth-100bn-12044381" target="_blank">much higher net worth</a></strong> because they often own a large proportion of their company's shares.</p><p>Two years ago, Apple became the first US-listed company to be <strong><a href="https://news.sky.com/story/apple-becomes-first-trillion-dollar-us-company-11457785" target="_blank">valued at a trillion dollars</a></strong>.</p><p>The company is now worth about $1.9tn (£1.45tn) and analysts believe it will pass the $2tn (£1.5tn) mark this year.</p><p>Mr Cook has said he will <strong><a href="https://news.sky.com/story/tim-cook-vows-to-give-away-his-785m-fortune-10365948" target="_blank">give away his entire fortune before he dies</a></strong>, telling Fortune magazine that he would fund his nephew's education before giving his wealth to charity.</p><p>Two causes that are close to his heart are HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, as well as climate change, he said - telling the magazine he had already started to quietly donate.</p><p>"You want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripples for change," he said at the time.</p>
