Larry Page, co-founder of Google and the eighth richest person in the world, tops the Who Rules The World? (WRTW) index with a personal wealth of approximately $100 billion. Page is one of the few prominent tech founders to maintain a majority voting share in his company, which gives him an inordinate amount of power and contributes to his number one position on the index. Google products are used by an estimated 7 billion people daily, giving Page access to the world's largest network of individuals on a common platform. There are more mentions of the term Google on the internet than almost any other term, and searches for it return approximately 10.2 billion results. By comparison, ‘Microsoft’ produces 1 billion, ‘China’ 6.7 billion, and ‘coronavirus’ 1.7 billion.

The President of the United States takes the silver medal in the WRTW index. This is primarily because anyone who assumes the role of US President wields a vast amount of power and influence. In his role as President of The United States, Biden has access to the world’s largest economy and military, and has the ability to implement policies that impact every vertical measured in the WRTW index on a global scale. There is a reason the US presidential elections are so closely followed around the globe.

Brin comes in at 3rd place. Although he is the co-founder of Google alongside Page in 1998, Brin is significantly less active in public life, thus resulting in a lower influence score and overall ranking than his co-founder Page. Despite this, Brin still has equal control over the most extensive online network to exist, is the 8th wealthiest person in the world, with over $100B net worth, thus putting him in equal league with Page in terms of power and wealth.

As the leader of China’s only political party, Jinping resides over the world’s second largest economy. Furthermore, China had the largest army in the world in 2020, with over 2 million active military personnel, all of whom fall under Jinping’s jurisdiction, as do China’s 1.4 billion people. In extension to this, China's parliament recently amended its constitution, broadening Xi's power and scrapping term limits, which gives Jinping immense (and ongoing) political power.

Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos is often referred to as the richest man on Earth due to his $200 billion-strong personal wealth. Amazon needs no introduction beyond the fact that for every charger, dog treat or set of pens that arrives through your door, Bezos is benefitting. Bezos also has access to multiple high-influence networks through entities he owns or has invested in. These include (but are by no means limited to) Amazon Alexa, The Washington Post, Google, Airbnb, Uber, Twitter, Twitch, Whole Foods and, most recently, Blue Origin, which is a well-documented space exploration project.

As the CEO of the largest company in the world, Cook’s appearance in the top 10 should come as no surprise. As of April 2021, Apple’s market cap reached just over $2.12 trillion. Interestingly, the valuation of Apple was $350 billion 9 years ago, when Tim Cook was appointed as CEO in place of Steve Jobs. Cook wields enormous power, not least because it’s highly likely his tech is in your house, in your ears and in your pocket.

Alphabet is the parent company of Google, and Pichai is the CEO of Alphabet. Put simply, Pichai has the power to make changes at the touch of a button that would directly impact how you were able use Google and YouTube. That aside, Pichai is also one of the world's highest-paid executives, with annual takings of over $280 million.

Often referred to as ‘the country on the rise’, India’s economy and power are on the up and up, and with them, that of its Prime Minister. Modi has direct access and influence over: the country’s economy, which is the fifth-largest in the world; its military, which is the fourth strongest in the world; and a population of around 1.4 billion people. In India, the Prime Minister is the senior-most member of the cabinet. He selects and can dismiss any other members of the cabinet; allocates posts to members within the government; and is the presiding member and chairperson.

The youngest member of the top ten, Zuckerberg earned his wealth and power through the creation of Facebook. He then extended this with acquisitions that included some of the world’s other most successful social media networks, including Instagram and WhatsApp. He can decide how to configure Facebook’s algorithms to determine what people see in their News Feeds, what privacy settings they can use, and even which messages get delivered. He also sets the rules that distinguish violent and incendiary speech from the merely offensive, the impact of which is colossal. Zuckerberg possesses a personal wealth of over $114 billion, which makes him the fifth richest person in the world.

As a centibillionaire and joint ‘world’s richest man’ titleholder, Musk’s wealth is well documented. He is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer at SpaceX; CEO and product architect of Tesla Inc; founder of The Boring Company; and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, which promotes ‘friendly artificial intelligence’. And let’s not forget PayPal, which he sold to eBay for a cool $1.5 billion. Cited as the inspiration behind Marvel’s Iron Man stories, Musk’s love of new technology seemingly knows no bounds.