The conversation about whether college delivers enough value has intensified recently.

With AI transforming white-collar roles and tuition costs remaining high, many young professionals are questioning the standard route of finishing a degree before starting work.

Tales of Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates leaving college early have turned into legends within the technology sector. Yet the leaders of Meta and Microsoft are far from alone among top executives who climbed to prominence without finishing their studies.

Founders and chief executives at other prominent tech firms, including a fresh wave of Gen Z innovators in artificial intelligence, have also stepped away from higher education to pursue opportunities in technology.

Below are 21 technology executives who never completed their college degrees.

Mark Zuckerberg - founder and CEO, Meta

Zuckerberg, who leads Meta as founder and CEO, pursued studies in psychology and computer science at Harvard yet departed before earning his diploma.

While enrolled at Harvard in 2004, he created thefacebook.com, which evolved into Facebook, and left during his second year to relocate to Palo Alto and focus entirely on the venture.

In a 2025 discussion with comedian Theo Von, Zuckerberg noted that it has long been considered unusual to suggest not everyone requires a college education, since many positions do not demand one, though attitudes appear to be shifting compared to a decade earlier.

Harvard awarded him an honorary degree in 2017.

Sam Altman - cofounder and CEO, OpenAI

Sam Altman attended Stanford University for computer science over two years before leaving in 2005 at age 19.

He departed to help start the location-sharing service Loopt, later purchased by Green Dot in 2012.

Altman took the role of president at Y Combinator in 2014. He helped establish OpenAI in 2015 with Elon Musk and additional partners, assuming the CEO position in 2019.

During a 2025 DevDay conference interview, Altman expressed envy toward today's 20-year-old dropouts.

He observed that the potential to create and the breadth of opportunity in the field remain remarkably expansive.

John and Patrick Collison - cofounders, Stripe

John and Patrick Collison, raised in Ireland, developed the concept for their initial venture as teenagers: an online auction management platform called Auctomatic.

The siblings sold Auctomatic in 2008 for $5 million, becoming teenage millionaires according to The Guardian.

Patrick Collison joined MIT in 2006 but left to advance his projects, while John Collison entered Harvard in 2009 and exited after one year to build their payments startup, Stripe.

The brothers introduced Stripe in 2010. Reports from CNBC indicated a valuation of $159 billion earlier in the year.

Mustafa Suleyman - CEO, Microsoft AI

Mustafa Suleyman, raised in London, studied philosophy and theology at Oxford University but withdrew because the program struck him as overly theoretical and detached from practical needs.

Following his departure, Suleyman established the Muslim Youth Helpline, a phone-based counseling resource, alongside a university acquaintance.

After several years in politics and advisory roles, Suleyman co-launched DeepMind in 2010.

In 2024, he assumed the position of executive vice president and CEO at the newly created Microsoft AI division.

Melanie Perkins - cofounder and CEO, Canva

Melanie Perkins, who grew up in Perth, Australia, studied at the University of Western Australia and developed the notion of simplifying design processes, as she shared with Entrepreneur in 2019.

Perkins introduced Fusion Books, a platform allowing students to create custom yearbooks, alongside her then-boyfriend and current husband Clifford Obrecht in 2007.

She explained to the BBC that she chose to leave college, convinced the idea could extend to additional applications beyond yearbooks, and began pitching investors in Silicon Valley in 2010.

Perkins and Obrecht debuted Canva in 2013. The firm reached a $42 billion valuation during a 2025 employee share transaction.

Daniel Ek - cofounder and executive chair, Spotify

Daniel Ek, raised in Sweden, began studies in engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in 2002.

In a 2012 Forbes interview, he noted that he remained only eight weeks after learning the first year focused entirely on theoretical mathematics, after which he pursued roles at various technology firms.

Ek co-established Spotify in 2006 and served as CEO until 2025. CNBC reported that he attained billionaire status in 2018 upon Spotify's listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Larry Ellison - cofounder and CTO, Oracle

As a youth in Chicago, Larry Ellison intended to attend medical school at USC, marry, raise a family, and practice medicine in Los Angeles.

Those plans did not materialize. He attempted an undergraduate degree on two occasions: two years at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and one semester at the University of Chicago.

After his second withdrawal, Ellison relocated to California during the rise of the technology industry and co-founded what became Oracle in 1977.

He currently acts as chief technology officer, and Forbes noted in 2026 that he continues among the wealthiest individuals globally.

Alexandr Wang - founder and former CEO, Scale AI; chief AI officer, Meta

Alexandr Wang, born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, studied mathematics and computer science at MIT per his LinkedIn profile before leaving at age 19 to create Scale AI.

Forbes indicated that Wang became the youngest self-made billionaire worldwide in 2021 at age 24, holding the distinction until Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan surpassed him in 2025.

He led Scale AI as CEO until 2025, when Meta acquired a 49 percent nonvoting stake for approximately $14.3 billion. Wang has served as Meta's chief AI officer since 2025.

Jack Dorsey - cofounder and former CEO, Twitter; cofounder and CEO, Block

Jack Dorsey initially enrolled at the University of Missouri-Rolla before transferring to NYU after two years.

In a 2011 Wired interview, Dorsey explained that he conceived the concept for Twitter while at NYU, where he exited one semester before graduation in 1999. He then moved westward for a technology position and explored interests beyond the sector.

Dorsey co-created Twitter, now known as X, which debuted in 2006. He resigned as CEO in 2021.

He co-founded the financial technology firm Square, now Block, in 2009 and remains its CEO.

Evan Williams - cofounder and former CEO, Twitter

Evan Williams, raised in a small Nebraska town, attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

He informed The New York Times in 2009 that he viewed college as unproductive and stayed only a year and a half.

Williams mentioned in a 2009 Wall Street Journal discussion that he subsequently moved to Florida and worked across multiple cities on freelance and technology assignments.

Like his co-founder Dorsey, Williams achieved billionaire status after Twitter's IPO. He co-founded the venture capital firm Obvious Ventures.

Steve Jobs - cofounder and former CEO, Apple

Steve Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. The institution carried costs nearly comparable to Stanford, as he noted in a 2005 Stanford commencement address, and he struggled to perceive its worth.

He chose to withdraw and rely on the outcome working favorably, describing the choice as frightening initially yet ultimately one of his strongest decisions upon reflection.

CNN reported that he left after one semester but remained nearby to audit classes that captured his interest.

One such course was calligraphy instructed by Trappist monk Robert Palladino, whom Jobs later credited with insights on typefaces incorporated into the Macintosh personal computer.