Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. These men possess wealth and influence exceeding that of most nations and democratically elected leaders. They have shaped our lives, the political futures of countries and have the power to move markets and change the course of history with their businesses or single utterances on social media.
This series seeks to explain their rise, understand their power and predict their future. Each film looks at one titan and will explain how they became the multi-billionaires they are today.
THE BILLIONAIRES WHO MADE OUR WORLD: BILL GATES
Ruthless but visionary, Bill Gates was the man who revolutionised tech. But after a remarkable transformation, he went on a mission to save the world. As part of a landmark series about the tech titans of Silicon Valley, this documentary lifts the lid on one of the world’s richest men.
With exclusive access to friends and insiders, it reveals new details about Bill Gates’s charity empire, questions his business practices and asks if the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is too powerful and unaccountable in the world of global health. Is Gates really the modern-day saint that the world thinks he is?
THE BILLIONAIRES WHO MADE OUR WORLD: JEFF BEZOS
The transformation of Jeff Bezos has been extraordinary. Dubbed the ‘Terminator’, he’s the puffed-up muscle man with a glamorous new girlfriend vying with Elon Musk to be the world’s richest man. As one insider tells this documentary, he’s become a caricature of what it’s like to be worth $200m – blasts off into space, has had a tabloid-worthy divorce, buying up mansions and building a $500m yacht. But Bezos wasn’t always so glamorous.
This film charts Bezos from his early days as a geeky computer guy with the foghorn laugh to making Amazon one of the world’s biggest - and most controversial - multinational corporations. It also explores his until-now hidden voyage to the bottom of the ocean, born of his life-long obsession with space.
THE BILLIONAIRES WHO MADE OUR WORLD: MARK ZUCKERBERG
Mark Zuckerberg has an image problem. He’s been dubbed the human robot and following scandals such as Cambridge Analytica and the role of Facebook in getting Trump elected, he’s become Public Enemy Number One. But it didn’t used to be this way – Zuckerberg was until a few years ago adored by the public and worshipped in Silicon Valley as a prodigy and idealist changing the world.
Using rare archive, this documentary asks the question – who is the real Mark Zuckerberg? Is it the simple family-man who’s just misunderstood? Or a ruthless operator who built an empire without caring who he hurt along the way? The series has world-exclusive access to Mark’s friends and colleagues who talk about the man they know intimately; and also to key political heavyweights who have been both his kingmaker and who may now have the power to topple him.
THE BILLIONAIRES WHO MADE OUR WORLD: ELON MUSK
He is Time’s Person of the Year 2021, a flamboyant entrepreneur and billionaire, whose Tweets can move stock markets and spark buying and selling frenzies. The divisive celebrity is permanently in the headlines alongside his multiple controversial and eye-catching businesses, PR stunts and florid personal life. But beneath all the razzmatazz, there’s a company that has genuinely spearheaded the move from fossil fuel to electric in the car industry – Tesla – and SpaceX, which has transformed space travel.
The film asks fundamental and serious questions about the South African-born entrepreneur’s public façade and his businesses - where there are also allegations of heavy-handed behaviour and racism towards staff. Are believers following a man who’ll lead us into a new technological post-fossil-fuel age of space travel and AI, or a false prophet selling snake oil?
Formally known as Titans of Tech