With the tech industry advancing at light speed, there are plenty of fresh innovators to keep our eye on. While the tech titans like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are always on our radar, new trailblazers are making their way into the spotlight.

Read on to find out the most powerful people in tech in 2021 that we can't keep our eyes off.

1. Elon Musk

elon musk
Image Credit: NASA/Wikimedia Commons

Best known as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk is also sometimes called the King of Coin after causing the price of certain cryptocurrencies to soar by simply tweeting about them.

Musk has been responsible for several spikes in Bitcoin prices, including the time he announced that Tesla would accept payment in Bitcoin for their cars in February 2021.

His greatest show of power was when he pumped the meme coin Dogecoin to dizzying heights in May 2021 after a series of Tweets about it earning him the moniker 'Dogefather'.

2. Whitney Wolfe Herd

whitney wolfe herd
Image Credit: TechCrunch/Wikimedia Commons

At only 31 years of age, Whitney Wolfe Herd already boasts an impressive resume.

She served as an early executive at Tinder and was credited with its rise in early popularity, but after tensions with other executives, she subsequently left the company and launched her own female-focused dating app.

Related: Why Women Are Flocking to the Bumble Dating App

Since its inception in 2014, Bumble has revolutionized online dating by putting women in control and has become one of the world's leading online dating apps, reaching 100 million subscribers in 2020.

Bumble's IPO in February 2021 made Herd the world's youngest self-made female billionaire, with a net worth of $1.5 billion.

3. Jack Dorsey

jack dorsey

Founder and CEO of social media platform Twitter and financial services company Square, it's safe to say we have been familiar with Jack Dorsey for a while now.

Founded in 2006, Twitter revolutionized social media by condensing communications into a micro-blogging format.

While Twitter has had its fair share of controversy over the years, Dorsey flexed his power muscle when he permanently suspended former President of the United States, Donald Trump, from Twitter.

While Dorsey received equal amounts of support and hate from both sides of the aisle, his action revealed that tech moguls like Dorsey have unprecedented power that even extends to deplatforming the sitting president of the most powerful country in the world.

4. Ma Huateng (Pony Ma)

tiktok app on iphone

Ma Huateng, one of this list's more obscure tech figures, is the founder and CEO of Tencent, the most valuable company in Asia and one of the largest technology companies in the world.

You might not have heard of Ma, as he likes to keep himself out of the limelight and is known for his low profile personality.

His company on the other hand is renowned as running the most popular instant messaging platform in the world WeChat, in addition to TikTok, the fastest growing social media entertainment platform in the world.

5. Daniel Ek

daniel ek
Image Credit: Magnus Hoij/Wikimedia Commons

Daniel Ek is the founder and CEO of the Swedish company Spotify, which was once only known for its audio streaming service.

This changed in 2019 when the company began acquiring podcasting platforms and repivot itself as a major player in the podcast space.

Perhaps their most well-known acquisition was offering Joe Rogan $100 million to move his popular podcast exclusively to Spotify.

Related: Uncommon Ways to Discover Podcasts Worth Listening To

Ek's ability to repurpose Spotify has seen it become one of the most popular podcasting platforms in the world, second only to Apple Podcasts.

Spotify made a risky bet that podcasts would be the next big thing. This gamble paid off, and Spotify is now poised to surpass Apple Podcasts in the US in late 2021.

6. Susan Wojcicki

Susan Wojcicki YouTube CEO

As the CEO of YouTube, Wojcicki has been heavily involved in the tech industry since being involved in the founding of Google.

In the past, she worked with Google's video service, YouTube's direct competitor at the time. Seeing the potential of YouTube, she proposed Google buy it, and handled the acquisition in 2006.

Since becoming YouTube's CEO in 2014, Wojcicki has helped YouTube build new experiences for a variety of audiences.

YouTube has now become the world's second most popular website, earning Wojcicki the title of "the most powerful woman on the internet".

7. Tobias Lütke

Image Credit: Union Eleven/Wikimedia Commons

Shopify founder and CEO Tobias Lütke has been fascinated by technology since he was 12 years old when he rewrote computer games code as a hobby.

His passion paid off, and now Shopify has a reach of 1,700,000 businesses in 175 countries as of May 2021.

Even though Shopify is the largest publicly traded company in Canada, it reaches the everyday people by allowing small businesses to easily open e-commerce stores.

8. Satya Nadella

satya nadella
Image Credit: Brian Smale and Microsoft/Wikimedia Commons

Having joined Microsoft in 1992, Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014 and chairman of the company in 2021.

Unlike Microsoft's previous stance, Nadella is known for his collaborative mindset and campaigned for Microsoft to work with companies it traditionally competed against, such as Apple, IBM, and Linux.

As CEO, Nadella led Microsoft to triple their stock value between 2014 and 2018.

9. Reed Hastings

reed hastings
Image Credit: JD Lasica/Wikimedia Commons

Before becoming the co-founder, chairman, and co-CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings held various jobs that included Peace Corps volunteer and door-to-door salesman.

When he co-founded Netflix in 1997, he was not certain if it would succeed or not. With a steady rise over the past two decades, Netflix became the largest media/entertainment company on July 10, 2020.

Netflix has revolutionized the way audiences consume televised media, from the traditional air-to-TV model to consumers taking the reins and choosing which content they want to watch.

10. Antonio Neri

antonio neri
Image Credit: HPEupdate/Wikimedia Commons

Antonio Neri is currently the president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) after working for the company for several decades.

Neri is credited with a number of changes in the company, including prominent acquisitions and the adoption of new technologies.

But his most significant change at HPE is yet to come to fruition. By 2022, he will transition the company to an everthing-as-a-service model. The move is expected to return long term profitable growth to HPE and will completely disrupt its traditional business model.

11. Mark Zuckerberg

Image Credit: Anthony Quintano/Wikimedia Commons

The brains behind the world's most popular social media platform, Mark Zuckerberg, is sometimes referred to as the most powerful unelected person in America.

After Facebook purchased Instagram and WhatsApp, Zuckerberg consolidated his power and is now in charge of three of the most popular communication platforms in the world.

Facebook's long-term strategy of acquiring competitors and developing new competitive products will keep them on top of the tech world for many years to come.

12. Jeff Bezos

Image Credit: Seattle City Council/Wikimedia Commons

The founder of Amazon and richest person in the world, there is no doubt that Jeff Bezos is one of the power players in tech.

With just a glimmer of hope Amazon would succeed when he founded it in 1994, it is now the world's largest online retailer.

From humble beginnings as an online bookseller, Bezos now has business interests spanning e-commerce, venture capital, and even the space industry.

What Do These Powerful People Have in Common?

Everyone on this list had a unique backstory before they made their mark in the tech industry.

Regardless of their background, all these figures have one thing in common: they love the industry they work in, they were willing to take risks others would not, and they worked harder than everyone else to reach where they are now.