Mark Zuckerburg, the 27-year old co-founder
of online networking website Facebook, has jumped 21 places to rank fourteenth on the Forbes 400, the annual ranking of America’s richest. 

With an estimated net worth of $17.5
billion, the poster-boy of the social media revolution is now worth more than
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They rank joint fifteenth with an estimated $16.7 billion. Google chairman Eric Schmidt is in joint fiftieth position, along with eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, both with fortunes of $6.2
billion.

Forbes thirtieth annual rich list
published last week, was testimony to the amount of money that can be made in
the online technology sector. Almost all of the US’ current richest people have
earned their fortunes through the Internet.

With $59 billion of assets, Microsoft
tycoon and chairman Bill Gates ranked first again, reigning supreme for nearly
16 years running (except in 2008 when he ranked third). His colleague, Steve
Ballmer, CEO of the software giant, ranked number 19 with a fortune of
$13.9 billion.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos came in just ahead of
Zuckerburg at thirteenth place, with a fortune of $19.1 billion.

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, rose three
places to number 39 with a net worth of $7 billion.

Michael Dell, founder of the eponymous
software company, was in eighteenth place with assets estimated at $15
billion, while Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen came in at twenty-third with
$13.2 billion.