Top 5 ice bucket challenges in tech; Cook, Gates, Bezos join viral craze

By Salvador Rodriguez

Aug. 15, 2014 1:44 PM PT

Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos are the latest tech icons to join in on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, posting videos of their drenchings Friday on YouTube.

Gates' bucket dumping stands out. Rather than simply pouring a bucket of water on his head as most others might, the world's richest man built a machine for optimal ice bucket splashing. It also doesn't hurt that Gates' video features the most high-quality video or that he nominated Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX.

Cook didn't do bad either. Apple's main man was doused by artist Michael Franti to the tune of "Ice Ice Baby" in front of his employees at their Cupertino headquarters. Cook topped it all off by nominating his new colleague, hip-hop artist and Beats Electronics co-founder Dr. Dre.

Bezos' also did a great job, nominating "Star Trek" stars William Shatner, Patrick Stewart and George Takei and getting splashed with more ice and water than any other figure in tech (it actually looked painful).

After taking the challenge, most participants are nominating others to follow suit. They must either take on the challenge in the next 24 hours to raise awareness about ALS or donate money to the ALS Assn.

With so many tech execs taking part in the challenge, we decided to rank the videos. Here are our top 5 so far:

1. Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder