It’s no surprise that Bill Gates still reigns supreme on the Forbes 400 list of richest people in America. His estimated wealth valuation is $54 billion. In a not too distant second place, Warren Buffett came in with an estimated $45 billion. Rounding out the top three on this list of I-have-more-money-than-I-can-shake-a-fist-at was Oracle Founder, Larry Ellison, with $27 billion.
What is surprising is to see 26 year old Mark Zuckerberg, who didn’t even qualify as a billionaire last year, ranked higher than Steve Jobs. Ranked at No. 35, Zuckerberg ($6.9 billion) meteoric rise is largely due to a $200 million infusion of cash in Facebook last year. Interestingly, Jobs’ (No. 42; $6.1 billion) net worth is not based on his success with Apple, but comes from his shares in Disney, which bought his Pixar animation studio in 2006 for $7.4 billion.
Zuckerberg does appear to be putting his massive wealth to good use, announcing today that he was donating $100 million to schools in Newark, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.