The Ledger / Charles Simonyi
Charles Simonyi
◼ Origin
Employee No. 40 at Microsoft (joined 1981); principal architect of Microsoft Word and Excel. Founded Intentional Software in 2002 after leaving Microsoft; Microsoft reacquired it in 2017. Wealth is largely Microsoft stock and investments accumulated over four decades.
◼ Self-Made Verdict — YES
Joined Microsoft as employee #40 with no inherited wealth; built Word and Excel through individual engineering contribution and retained substantial equity over four decades.
◼ Documented marks
01
Architected Microsoft Word and Excel as head of the Applications division from 1981–2002; these two products remain the foundation of Microsoft's most profitable business segment ($28B+ Office revenue annually).
02
Paid $60M for two trips to the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz rockets in 2007 and 2009 — the only private citizen to have visited the ISS twice as a tourist.
03
Founded Intentional Software in 2002 to develop 'intentional programming' — a system to represent software at a higher abstraction layer. Microsoft acquired it in 2017 for an undisclosed price, returning Simonyi to Redmond.
No inheritance, or primary accounts documented for this billionaire yet.
◼ List of charges
No documented charges yet.
These are moral charges, not legal ones. The actual legal system has not — and will not — bring them.
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