Elon Musk has used his ownership of X to promote Donald Trump’s re-election as “the only way to save democracy”. Jeff Bezos’s commitment to The Washington Post’s “Democracy Dies in Darkness” motto is in question after he stopped his paper from endorsing a presidential candidate. And the role Mark Zuckerberg’s social media platforms play in spreading political misinformation remains a topic for furious argument. 

Five spots below them on Bloomberg’s list of the world’s richest people, a lower-profile tech billionaire finds himself similarly preoccupied by politics.

Steve Ballmer, who succeeded Bill Gates and preceded Satya Nadella at Microsoft’s helm, has made it his mission to build a better democracy with data. Ahead of next Tuesday’s US election, he has been trying to turn USAFacts, a not-for-profit civic initiative, into a source of dispassionate statistics to inform the country’s enraged debates.