Zuckerberg, tech entrepreneurs stumble on list of America’s richest 400 people

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg may still be one of the richest men in the world but his wealth has taken a $US8 billion body blow thanks to the social network’s poor performance on the stock market, according to Forbes‘ latest list of America’s 400 richest people.

And despite the so-called tech bubble, it’s the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who have suffered the most – Groupon’s Eric Lefkofsky, Zynga’s Mark Pincus and Facebook investor Jim Breyer have all dropped off the list.

While the three richest people, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison have continued to give money away, they maintain their top spots with fortunes of $US66 billion, $US46 billion and $US41 billion respectively.

The 400 richest have a combined net worth of $US1.7 trillion, with the average net worth up from $US3.8 billion to $US4.2 billion. That figure is the highest ever.

Some of the 20 newcomers include Laurene Powell Jobs, the wife of Apple founder Steve Jobs, whose inherited fortune of $US11 billion has put her in the list for the first time, along with Panda Express founders Andrew and Peggy Cherng with a fortune of $US2 billion.

Square and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has also debuted on the list. The majority of his fortune has come from the mobile payments start-up.

But while there have been some significant debuts, there have also been massive drops. No more so than Mark Zuckerberg, whose fortune plummeted $US8 billion – he’s the year’s biggest loser.

While he’s still up $US2.5 billion from a year ago, Facebook’s poor performance has taken its toll. Zuckerberg now ranks 36th – he was at 14th last year. However, he still maintains a fortune of $US9.4 billion, the same as News Corp head Rupert Murdoch.

Other drop-offs include hedge fund manager Philip Falcone, gas mogul Aubrey McClendon, while other previous members have died, including Steve Jobs, Ted Forstmann and Donald Schneider.

There were just 45 women on the list, although that rose from 42 last year. The youngest entrant on the list was Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, at 28. The oldest entrant was David Rockefeller, aged 97, with a fortune of $US2.67 billion.

The top 10 richest Americans:

• Bill Gates – $US66 billion
• Warren Buffet – $US46 billion
• Larry Ellison – $US41 billion
• Charles Koch – $US31 billion
• David Koch – $US31 billion
• Christy Walton – $US27.9 billion
• Jim Walton – $US26.8 billion
• Alice Walton – $US26.3 billion
• Robert Walton – $US26.1 billion
• Michael Bloomberg – $US25 billion