"Money can't buy me… a place on silicon.com's Agenda Setters list."

Tech has more than its fair share of the filthy rich, many of whom head up well-known companies. But influence and career longevity are about a lot more than a healthy bank balance, as Tony Hallett finds out…

What makes a billionaire? The simple answer is, of course, possessing at least one thousand million dollars, $1,000,000,000. Oh that we should be so straightforward when assessing tech Agenda Setters.

Every year this snapshot is taken it is apparent the industry's super-rich have more than a good chance of placing high up. So what of this year? Well, using the word billionaire a little loosely - we'll include those with paper worth over or close to the magic mark, or at least fortunes in the hundreds of millions that still raise eyebrows - we find around eight of the filthy rich club scattered across the list.

Bill Gates, the world's richest man, is in at number two - remarkably his highest ever Agenda Setters position - and yet his age-old nemesis Steve Jobs, no slouch himself in the bank account department, still tops him.

For the first time, Gates main mucker, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, barely figures in the top 50. In past years it was assumed a split vote between the software giant's two main guiding lights prevented either from walking away with the trophy. However, this time out there was widespread criticism of the company's chief executive.

Whereas Gates was in there for, according to consultant and silicon.com columnist Martin Brampton, nothing less than "all the things he's achieved and all the damage he's done" and because he "has changed the world", Ballmer was thought to have struggled. One panellist noted: "He seems to have aged even faster than Tony Blair," while broadcaster Kate Bulkley dismissed him with: "He acts like a COO, which is fine."

Ballmer - who remains a force to be reckoned with and also one of tech's richest individuals - came in at 48.

Back at the top, after Apple and Microsoft's guiding lights, the next billionaire of note is Michael Dell. Despite having changed the face of PC selling and now trying to take his company onto another level ($60bn in annual revenue is the mantra chanted back in Round Rock, Texas), there was argument over just how much change he will affect looking forward.

Ric Francis, CIO at supermarket group Safeway, asked: "I wonder whether his point of agenda setting has gone by?"

However, there is plenty of evidence to suggest America's richest man under 40 is about to bring his influence and apply his direct model to a range of areas, from IT-centric networking and services, to gear such as point-of-sale registers and consumer electronics.

On the latter, VC Ajay Chowdhury said: "His new move into consumer appliances is a very interesting one. The battlefield will be between the Sonys and Dells of the world for hardware and Microsoft [and others] for control of the software." Dell makes it at 12, down from 5 last year.

Another stalwart of the IT industry, and one whose wealth can perhaps be measured more in mere hundreds of millions, especially after a recently listless share price, is Sun boss Scott McNealy. He is in at 22. The expert consensus was that Sun may be up against it - fighting a war on the four massive fronts that are Microsoft, IBM, Dell and HP was never going to be easy - but that it, and in particular its wise-crack-for-every-occasion CEO, is a necessary antidote and alternative to so much other received 'wisdom' in the market.

Bulkley suggested Sun's software chief, the youthful Jonathan Schwartz, might be more of a future Agenda Setter and summed things up by saying that although McNealy can get "maniacal about his [anti-Microsoft] stance, maybe he has to".

Further down the list, two newcomers are Masayoshi Son and John Malone. One leads Softbank, Japan's most famous new economy company, the other a telecoms and cable investment vehicle that political and business leaders around the world take notice of.

In fact if we're talking money, before the internet bubble burst, Son once actually came close to taking Gates' crown as world's richest man. Mind you, that was back when shares in Yahoo! Japan were trading for $1m each - and, by the way, Softbank just happened to be one of Yahoo's main investors.

Now Son is getting on with initiatives such as providing high-speed ADSL in Japan (and we mean high-speed in comparison to Western offerings, not just dial-up) and his influence is still considered strong.

Malone's Liberty Media is a global investor with influence throughout Europe - if NTL and Telewest do get together the thinking is that he will have a lot to do with it - and he is likely to keep on cropping up again and again as a deal-maker.

Two loaded Agenda Setters from the past to have a quiet year on the top 50 are Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Oracle's Larry Ellison, though Larry has hardly been meek of late with his attempts at a hostile takeover of rival PeopleSoft. They came in at 32 and a surprising 40 respectively.

Finally, spare a thought for those whose fortunes were no guarantee of recognition. Entrepreneurs such as Li Ka-Shing, the man whose Hutchison-Whampoa empire is funnelling billions into 3G phone trailblazer '3', fellow cellular communications legend Craig McCaw and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen all didn't make the cut.

Influence is about a lot more than wealth. Just ask any one of the open source advocates and 'free spirits' also on the top 50.