Paul Allen

Billionaire Paul Allen reportedly has an IQ of between 160 and 170. Allen was born in 1953 in Seattle and made friends with Bill Gates while still at school. He attended Washington State University but quit his studies in 1974 and then talked Gates into leaving Harvard. The following year, the pair founded Microsoft in New Mexico. After he was told that he had Hodgkin s lymphoma in 1982, Allen stepped back from Microsoft and eventually resigned in 2000, although he remained in an advisory capacity. He is a renowned philanthropist, and his donations to science, education, conservation, the arts and technology exceed $1.5 billion. As well as being a stakeholder in technology, media and other companies, Allen owns the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trailblazers and part owns MLS team the Seattle Sounders. He launched the Allen Institute for Brain Science in 2003 and founded space transport company Stratolaunch Systems in 2011.