Marc Benioff Net Worth 2024: Bedroom Programmer to $10 Billion Salesforce CEO & Philanthropist

Marc Benioff, the American internet entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Salesforce, is a multi-billionaire.

In 2024, Marc Benioff’s net worth is estimated at $10 billion and rising.

Salesforce is one of the most successful cloud computing businesses, but it is just one of the ventures that have contributed to Benioff’s billions.

He is also the owner of Time Magazine and has invested a fortune in assets like real estate.

Let’s take a closer look at what makes the incredible fortune of billionaire Marc Benioff.

5 Fun Facts About Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

1. First Computer: Bought his first computer by cleaning jewelry cases, but was fired for using the wrong soap.
2. Mentorship: Interned at Apple and was mentored by Steve Jobs, who significantly influenced his business approach.
3. Philanthropic Model: Created the 1-1-1 model, inspiring many startups to commit a portion of their resources to charitable causes.
4. Real Estate: His real estate purchases include a $28 million mansion on San Francisco’s Billionaire Row.
5. Time Magazine: Acquired Time magazine for $190 million, emphasizing his diverse investment portfolio.

Marc Benioff’s Net Worth: Full Breakdown

Marc Benioff’s wealth comes from his stake in Salesforce, as well as the money he got by selling some of his stock in the company.

He had achieved millionaire status even before founding this business and earned hundreds of millions in compensation working as the company’s CEO as well.

However, as you will read in this article, Marc Benioff earns a lot of money from other ventures and activities, such as his board memberships, authorship, and business investments.

After detailed research into his life and investments, we have been able to create a breakdown of Benioff’s land purchases, salaries, company stock, investment, and other assets.

Marc Benioff Net Worth: Early Life and Education

Marc Russell Benioff was born in the San Francisco Bay Area on September 25, 1964.

He was born to a Jewish family and is the grandson of Marvin E. Lewis, a famed California trial attorney, and member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

He’s also the second cousin of David Benioff, the television writer and showrunner known for Game of Thrones. Marc’s father, Russell Benioff, owned and managed a local department store in San Francisco.

Young Marc Benioff was raised in Hillsborough, where he studied at Burlingame High School until his graduation in 1982.

This was when he landed his first job, cleaning cases at a jewelry store after school so that he could save money to buy his first computer at Radio Shack. He did buy the computer but was fired from the jewelry store for using the wrong soap to clean the floors.

While he was still in high school, Benioff found his passion for programming. He was creating and selling video games and applications to other students and, at the age of just 15, he established a small venture called Liberty Software. Through his venture, he used to sell games for the Atari 8-bit including King Arthur’s Heir, The Nightmare, Escape from Vulcan’s Isle, and Flapper. His very first application was called How to Juggle which he sold for $75.

By the time he was 16 years old, Benioff was earning royalties of $1,500 per month or more, which he used to pay for his college education.

After graduating from high school, Marc Benioff graduated with a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Southern California. While at the university, he was a Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity member.

Marc Benioff is married to Lynne Benioff and has two children with her.

Salesforce CEO Net Worth: Reaching Millionaire Status by Age 25

By the time he started college, Benioff was already making more than most of his peers, enough to cover his college expenses. He also had job experience and had already dabbled in entrepreneurship, marking a promising start in the career world.

His wealth and success kept growing over the years and, by the time he was 25, Benioff had reached millionaire status.

Let’s see how he built his net worth to reach millions of dollars, and then billions.

Early Career Days

While studying at USC, Marc Benioff interned with Apple during the summers. He was a programmer in the Macintosh division, working under the company’s co-founder Steve Jobs. He later shared in one of his books, Behind the Cloud:

That summer, I discovered an entrepreneur could encourage revolutionary ideas.

The potential of the young programmer was evident from the very beginning. Not long after he started writing assembly code for the Macintosh, he became one of Steve Jobs’ mentees. Naturally, this was a pivotal moment for Benioff.

Later on, he would often ask his friend Steve Jobs for input in Salesforce’s early stages, at one point saying: “There would be no Salesforce.com without Steve Jobs”.

Joining Oracle

After his graduation, Benioff joined Oracle Corporation to work in customer service. He remained with Oracle for 13 years, working different jobs in sales, product development, and marketing. When he was 23 years old, he was named Oracle’s Rookie of the Year.

His salary increased gradually over the years, reportedly making him a millionaire as one of Oracle’s executives by age 25.

By age 26, the company named his vice president, making Benioff the youngest person in the history of Oracle to earn this title.

During his time at Oracle, Marc Benioff caught the attention of Oracle’s founder Larry Ellison, and the two became close friends soon after.

After about a decade at the company, Benioff felt like he needed to make a change, so he and Larry Ellison agreed that he should take a sabbatical.

So, the young entrepreneur and a millionaire spent a few months meditating and swimming with dolphins in Hawaii. He then proceeded to visit India and a few other countries before he returned to the United States.

The Birth of Salesforce

When Marc Benioff returned to the US from his sabbatical, he was a very wealthy man with a new mission – to start his own business. In 1999, he co-founded Salesforce in a San Francisco apartment, using the marketing slogan “The End of Software”.

His partners in the venture were Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez.

The San Francisco-based Salesforce was a one-of-a-kind idea. Benioff was one of the first people to recognize the potential of software-as-a-service (SaaS), and the man who created the term “platform as a service”.

By the end of its first year, Salesforce expanded to an 8,000-square-foot office and employed 40 people.

In the 2000s, Salesforce was already growing tremendously, and Benioff extended its offerings to include a platform where developers could build their own applications. However, this was also the period when the dot-com bubble burst, leading to 20% of the workforce being laid off.

By the end of 2001, the company’s revenue hit $5.4 million, and was the fastest CRM business in the world. In April of the same year, Salesforce announced its expansion into Dublin and Tokyo. In November, Marc Benioff became the chief executive officer and chairman of Salesforce.

Salesforce’s IPO

On June 23, 2004, Salesforce completed its initial public offering, raising $110 million at $11 per share on the New York Stock Exchange.

At the time, the business had spread into 12 offices around the world, employing a team of 767 and earning $176 million in annual revenue. In comparison, today Salesforce generates over $25 billion in annual revenue and is the biggest employer in San Francisco.

The business is headquartered at Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in the city.

Salesforce now offers customer relationship management services such as:

• Sales Cloud
• Service Cloud
• Commerce Cloud and Platform
• Marketing Cloud

Other services offered by the company include app creation, training at the Salesforce training center, and data integration and visualization. The Salesforce Platform is a platform-as-a-service where developers can add applications to the main Salesforce.com application using the Apex programming language.

Another service is Slack, the company that CEO Marc Benioff acquired through Salesforce for $27.7 billion. In November 2023, Salesforce executive Denise Dresser was selected as CEO of Slack.

In 2005, the business launched the Salesforce AppExchange, an online app store that allows users to sell consulting services and third-party applications.

Trailhead, Salesforce’s online learning platform, launched in 2014, offering courses focused on the company’s technologies.

Marc Benioff’s Stake in Salesforce

The details of how much the Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has earned are not disclosed for every year he has managed the business, but we did find some details about his earnings over the years, including:

• Salary and bonuses in 2023: $29.9 million
• Salary and bonuses in 2022: $28.6 million
• Salary and bonuses in 2020: $25.9 million
• Salary and bonuses in 2019: $28.4 million
• Salary and bonuses in 2018: $4.65 million
• Salary and bonuses in 2017: $13 million
• Salary and bonuses in 2016: $33.4 million

In November 2021, Benioff became the co-CEO of the company when Bret Taylor was promoted to the same position. However, just a year later, Taylor stepped down as co-CEO, leaving him to lead the business as the sole CEO once again.

As for his current stake in the company, CEO Marc Benioff owns less than 3% of Salesforce. He has sold around $1.5 billion worth of stock over the years and has been continuously selling in the last couple of years.

For instance, on May 30, 2024, he sold shares worth $3,249,840. In April, he sold over $11 million in shares.

As of June 2024, Salesforce’s market capitalization is $229.28 billion. If Benioff’s stake is around 3%, it is worth $6.87 billion today.

Philanthropy

Benioff’s CEO persona is much more than a businessman. The famed entrepreneur is also a major philanthropist, having donated a fortune to charitable causes over the years.

Marc Benioff is known for popularizing the 1-1-1 philanthropy model where startups donate 1% of their products, 1% of their equity, and 1% of their employees’ time to charitable causes. For years, he has followed this model through Salesforce.

On top of this, Marc Benioff runs a philanthropy wing of Salesforce he calls the Salesforce.com Foundation. The foundation has an annual budget of around $20 million it invests in charitable causes.

In the Bay Area, Benioff’s name is plastered across the city. The biggest donation he ever made was when he and his wife Lynne donated $250 million to the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in Oakland and San Francisco. They donated $100 million to UCSF Children’s Hospital in 2010, followed by another $150 million in 2014, after which the hospital was renamed to carry their family name.

In 2019, the Benioffs once again donated to UCSF, this time to create the Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine. They also donated $10 million to Stanford University to support the Microbiome Therapies Initiative and another $35 million to the Prostate Cancer Research Initiative at the University of California.

Today marks the groundbreaking of Straub Benioff Medical Center in Oahu, a beacon of hope for Hawaii. With the power of partnership between Hilo Benioff Medical, Hawaii Pacific Health and UCSF Benioff Children Hospitals, Straub Benioff Medical Center is set to revolutionize… pic.twitter.com/qBEyLhjeLT

— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) May 18, 2024

He has also pledged $2 million to a homelessness initiative in the area. In 2016, he donated $10 million to establish the Benioff Ocean Initiative with the University of California, Santa Barbara.

A year later, he partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to form the Pacific Islands Research and Conservation Program. Together with Salesforce, he donated $300 million to the latter.

In 2019, Benioff and his wife donated $30 million to the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative by the Center for Vulnerable Populations to study the impact of housing and homelessness.

A year later, Marc Benioff donated 50 million items of protective equipment for COVID-10 first responders and hospitals in the United States.

He also donated over a million dollars to the Give2SF Response and Recovery Fund during the pandemic and, in 2021, his company sent a plane with medical supplies to help people in India handle the pandemic.

Marc and Lynne Benioff are also founding partners of the Earthshot Prize, which is a program that searches for solutions to different environmental issues.

They are also founding members of the Friends of Ocean Action Initiative at the World Economic Forum and donated $11 million to the cause.

Awards and Accolades

As can be expected, Marc Benioff has received numerous awards and accolades for his business achievements, as well as his philanthropy. Here are some of his most notable awards and recognition:

• 2003: Appointed co-chair of President George W. Bush’s Information Technology Advisory Committee
• 2009: Named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (he is also a member of their board)
• 2012: Awarded The Economist’s Innovation Award
• 2012: Named one of the best CEOs in the world by Barron’s
• 2014: Voted Businessperson of the Year on Fortune
• 2020: Selected CNN Business CEO
• 2021: Named one of the Top CEOs in the world by Glassdoor

What Does Marc Benioff Invest His Money In?

Salesforce makes up for most of Marc Benioff’s fortune, but that’s not all that contributes to his incredible wealth.

The businessman has invested in many things over the years and has also earned money from other ventures and activities, such as his board memberships and venture capital fund.

Board Memberships

Marc Benioff serves on the World Economic Forum’s board of trustees. He also serves on the USC board of trustees.

In addition to this, Benioff is a member of an advocacy group of CEOs called Business Roundtable and a member of the Business Council.

Time Ventures

On September 16, 2018, Marc Benioff and his wife acquired Time magazine for $190 million. A couple of months later, in 2019, Benioff started Time Ventures, which is a venture capital fund that invests in different companies including NCX, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Planet Labs, and Universal Hydrogen.

Benioff’s Land Purchases in Waimea

Over the last couple of years, Benioff’s land purchases have been increasing, especially in Waimea, on Hawaii’s Big Island. Benioff’s purchases include his beachside mansion down the mountain from Waimea, which is worth $24.5 million.

He has also built dozens of acres of agricultural land and private ranch land in Waimea over the last two decades, especially since the onset of the pandemic.

Unlike other billionaires who focus on acquiring expensive coastal properties, Benioff has bought land in a rural residential town. The interesting thing is, that no one knows the reason behind all these land purchases.

“When there’s no clarity or disclosure about what the intentions are of someone purchasing a property or multiple properties, then there’s that level of uncertainty. And with those gaps of information, people are filling in the blanks.” – explained one resident of Hawaii’s Big Island.

Since 2000, Benioff has acquired at least 38 parcels of land through several anonymous limited liability companies and one nonprofit, using the same mailing address in the San Francisco Bay Area, and he hasn’t disputed the ownership of any of it.

This would equal over 600 acres of land, spread between 29 parcels in Waimea, and 25 parcels in beach resort property real estate. According to this report, the combined market value of the land in question is $100 million.

It’s no secret that Marc Benioff loves Hawaii and its culture. He has implemented Aloha shirt days at Salesforce on Fridays and has thrown a Hawaiian luau at an annual Salesforce party. He even had Hawaiian spiritual advisers bless the area during the construction of the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco.

Based on his philanthropic endeavors, many of these land parcels are used for philanthropy and offer affordable housing, which includes the cluster of properties for the Ouli project and five residential properties the Benioff family gifted to a Waimea private school in 2022.

Benioff’s purchases also include a commercial property in the city he bought in 2022, which is now the location of a community center that the businessman is establishing. People refer to it as a Jewish Community Center.

When asked if he plans to expand Salesforce to Hawaii, Benioff answered:

There’s nothing owned by Salesforce in Hawaii. There never will be. So for people who say to me, and many have, ‘Oh, I heard you’re going to bring a Salesforce campus here — you’re bringing over 50 people or 100 people.’ They don’t understand what’s going on in this town and this state.

Real Estate Assets

For the most part, Benioff’s land buys are in Hawaii’s agricultural town of Waimea, but that’s not all he has in his real estate portfolio. He also maintains a luxurious real estate presence in San Francisco, among other cities. He owns a $28 million mansion on San Francisco’s Billionaire Row in Pacific Heights, as well as a $10.82 million house on Jackson Street in San Francisco. The Wall Street Journal has also reported another property in San Francisco, which they bought in 2005 for $27 million.

Authorship

Marc Benioff is an author as well, having co-written four books about technology and business to date. His published work includes:

• 2004: Compassionate Capitalism: How Corporations Can Make Doing Good an Integral Part of Doing Well – co-written with Karen Southwick
• 2006: The Business of Changing the World: 20 Great Leaders on Strategic Corporate Philanthropy – co-written with Carlye Adler
• 2009: Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company and Revolutionized an Industry – co-written with Carlye Adler
• 2019: Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change – co-written with Monica Langley (a New York Times Bestseller)

What Can We Learn from Marc Benioff’s Story?

Marc Benioff’s journey from a teenage entrepreneur to a multi-billionaire Salesforce CEO offers several valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Like many tech visionaries, Benioff’s early interest in programming set the stage for his later successes. By starting Liberty Software at age 15, he demonstrated that pursuing your passions early can lead to significant achievements in life.

Furthermore, Benioff’s internship at Apple and his mentorship under Steve Jobs were pivotal in shaping his entrepreneurial mindset. This teaches us that seeking mentorship from industry leaders can provide valuable insights and guidance to people who are just starting.

Benioff’s vision for Salesforce was revolutionary.

He recognized the potential of cloud computing and SaaS before it became mainstream. Embracing innovation and being ahead of the curve can set a business apart from its competition.

While Salesforce is the cornerstone of his wealth, Benioff has diversified his investments into media with Time Magazine, real estate, and venture capital.

This teaches us the importance of diversification, which can provide new growth opportunities and more importantly, financial stability.

Finally, Benioff’s 1-1-1 philanthropy model and his substantial charitable contributions highlight the importance of integrating social responsibility with business. Companies can thrive when they contribute to the greater good.