A year ago, Mark Zuckerberg had seen his wealth double in 12 months as Facebook recovered from its disappointing IPO in 2012. Now the CEO of the social networking giant is sitting even prettier.
On this year’s Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, Zuckerberg has a net worth of $34 billion, up $15 billion from 2013 — that makes him the biggest dollar gainer on the list. His net worth has more than tripled over the past two years, catapulting him up the rankings. He’s now the third richest American in the technology industry (last year he was sixth), and the 11th richest person in America.
Zuckerberg was the biggest winner this year, but he wasn’t alone in rocketing up. The 10 richest people in tech on The Forbes 400 are collectively 23% wealthier than a year ago.
The names on the top 10 haven’t changed. Microsoft MSFT +0.11% founder Bill Gates is still the richest American and the richest in tech. Oracle ORCL -1.16% cofounder Larry Ellison is the third richest American and the second richest in tech. Gates’ and Ellison’s fortunes each grew $9 billion over the past year. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a net worth estimated at $30.3 billion, up $3.3 billion from a year ago. He ranks 32 on The Forbes 400 and is the sixth richest person in tech.
Out of the 52 billionaires on the list who made their money in tech, only three saw their wealth decline — slightly. EBay founder Pierre Omidyar and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman were down about $300 million, and Groupon CEO Eric Lefkofsky dropped around $200 million.
Four new tech entrepreneurs joined The Forbes 400 this year. WhatsApp cofounders Jan Koum and Brian Acton made the list after Facebook bought the messaging service for $19 billion earlier this year. Twitter cofounder Evan Williams became a billionaire after the social network went public last November. And Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick’s net worth shot up after the ride-sharing company was valued at as much as $18.2 billion in a funding round over the summer.
FORBES used stock prices from September 12, 2014, to calculate rankings for the 2014 Forbes 400.
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