Vanguard is owned by its funds. This is sometimes referred to as "mutualized". It's a unique ownership structure.
As you point out, Gates and Buffett became wealthy due to their ownership in their respective companies. I don't know how much Bogle "owned" of Vanguard - but I suspect the structure he set up made his ownership no larger than his actual investment in Vanguard mutual funds and ETFs.
Probably not good to compare Bogle to Gates or Buffet. Better to compare him to Larry Fink of Blackrock or Charles Schwab. Blackrock manages slightly more assets - around $6.5tr vs $5 for Vanguard. Blackrock is a $65bn market cap company. Point is, as a founder of a comparably large asset manager, he didnt leave this earth as a billionaire. All the better, you can't take it with you.
> Better to compare him to Larry Fink of Blackrock
I thought this was a great point, and makes the comparisons to Gates and Buffett look really lazy. (The connection is...they are famous wealthy dudes.) For others wondering, Larry Fink has a net worth of about ~$1B versus Bogle's ~$80M. Vanguard is a bit older than Blackrock (1974 vs 1988), but I also think Vanguard would have been less successful, counterfactually, if it had charged higher fees that would have enriched Bogle. The low fees were part of what made it possible. So it's almost certainly true that Bogle left money on the table in order to make the world a better, but he probably left a factor of ~5x rather than 50x or something.
As you point out, Gates and Buffett became wealthy due to their ownership in their respective companies. I don't know how much Bogle "owned" of Vanguard - but I suspect the structure he set up made his ownership no larger than his actual investment in Vanguard mutual funds and ETFs.
Probably not good to compare Bogle to Gates or Buffet. Better to compare him to Larry Fink of Blackrock or Charles Schwab. Blackrock manages slightly more assets - around $6.5tr vs $5 for Vanguard. Blackrock is a $65bn market cap company. Point is, as a founder of a comparably large asset manager, he didnt leave this earth as a billionaire. All the better, you can't take it with you.