Paper billionaires

The run-up in technology stocks has created "New Economy" billionaires. Since their profits are on paper only, they don't show up in CNET News.com's ranking of the highest-paid high-tech CEOs.

Net stock boom creates billionaires With Internet stocks soaring, Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang becomes the latest Net executive to gain entry into the billionaire club. Amazon.com CEO almost a billionaire update Despite the sharp run-up in the online bookseller's stock, chief executive Jeff Bezos earned just $79,197 last year and received no bonus or stock options--but he's still almost a billionaire. Gates worth $50 billion Bill Gates's net worth now stands at about $50 billion, thanks to the recent run-up in Microsoft's stock to an all-time high.

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