America's 10 Richest In Tech 2014: Zuckerberg Passes Page, Brin, Bezos

Mark Zuckerberg

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 founder Bill Gates is still the richest American and the richest in tech. Oracle co-founder 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.

Bill Gates

$81 billion

America's richest man, Bill Gates, is using his billions to effect major social change around the globe. Meanwhile, Gates keeps getting richer, adding $9 billion to his net worth in the last year. The gain is partly due to a sharp rise in shares at Microsoft, where Gates stepped down as chairman to take a different role advising current management on new products and technologies. His fortune is also up thanks to big returns on his investments in Canadian National Railway and trash company Republic Services, which Gates holds through his investment firm Cascade.

Larry Ellison

$50 billion

Larry Ellison shocked the business world this September when he announced plans to step down as Oracle's CEO. After having built databases for the CIA, Ellison founded Oracle in 1977 and has never left. He will remain Chief Technology Officer. In recent years, Ellison has been buying up properties on the Hawaiian island of Lanai, which he bought for a reported $300 million in 2012.

Mark Zuckerberg

$34 billion

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg bet big this year on new acquisitions, positioning his social network to ride the next hot trend. After secret meetings, Zuck sealed a deal in February for Facebook to buy mobile messaging app WhatsApp for a staggering $19 billion in cash and stock, shocking the tech world. The following month it spent $2 billion on virtual reality headset maker Oculus VR, before it even had a product ready to sell. Facebook stock has soared, adding $15 billion to Zuck's net worth over the past year and making him the biggest dollar gainer on the list.

$31.5 billion

Three years after Larry Page took over as CEO of the Mountain View, Calif. Company, Google is shaking up its senior ranks as it looks to expand into new areas like self-driving cars and a TV platform. Page oversaw a string of acquisitions in the past year, including programmable home thermostat maker Nest, video monitoring outfit Dropcam and video gaming platform Twitch. The Google co-founder's fortune has risen $6.6 billion over the past year along with the search giant's soaring stock price.                                                             

      

Sergey Brin

$31 billion

Google co-founder Sergey Brin runs Google X, the secretive division of the search engine company that focuses on risky projects, such as smart contact lenses, airborne wind turbines and Google Glass. His net worth increased by $6.6 billion over the past year thanks to Google’s skyrocketing stock price. He founded the company with Larry Page in 1998, when they were both computer science Ph.D. students at Stanford University.

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 co-founder 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 co-founder 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.

Big congrats to them all!!!