Mark Zuckerberg is richer than Steve Jobs

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now richer than Steve Jobs
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now richer than Steve Jobs

Mark Zuckerberg is officially richer than Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and gives more money away to charity, according to this year's Forbes 400 list.

The annual Forbes 400 list ranks the US's 400 richest businessmen and entrepreneurs, with an increasing number of tech industry luminaries on the list every year.

Value of Facebook triples

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has shot up the list in recent years. He is now sitting pretty at number 35, with a personal fortune of $6.9 billion (around £4.41 billion).

Facebook is now valued at around $23 billion (around £14.7 billion), which is three times last year's estimate.

Notably, Zuckerberg is now richer than Steve Jobs, who is ranked at number 42 on this year's Forbes 400 list, with a personal fortune of a 'mere' $6.1 billion, most of which comes from his stocks in Disney, rather than Apple.

Jobs, Disney, Apple

Jobs acquired 138 million shares of Disney after selling Pixar to the company in 2006, shares which were valued at $4.4 billion for the purposes of this year's Forbes 400 listing.

In contrast, Jobs' 5.5 million shares in Apple are worth around $1.3 billion.

According to the Wall Street Journal Zuckerberg is soon to announce a $100 million donation to the Newark, NJ public school system, working closely with Newark mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to find an equivalent $100 million from other private foundations.

Jobs founded Apple in 1976. Mark Zuckerberg was born eight years later in 1984.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates remains the wealthiest person in the US for the 17th year in a row, with Forbes estimating his personal fortune at $54billion (£34.5bn).

Investment guru Warren Buffet was second in the list with $45bn, closely followed by software tycoon Larry Ellison in third place.

Via Fast Company and Forbes

Adam Hartley