Mark Zuckerberg is the sixth richest person in the world, and the richest Jew, after accumulating more wealth than anyone else in the past year.
Eleven of the 50 richest people in the world are Jewish, according to the 30th annual Forbes billionaires list released Tuesday. The list features five Jews in the top 15 and seven in the top 25.
Zuckerberg, 31, added $11.2 billion US to his net wealth, giving him a total fortune of $44.6 billion US and moving him up to No. 6 on the list from No. 16 last year. The surge sends the Facebook founder past last year’s richest Jew, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and runner-up, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Ellison is the seventh richest person overall with a net worth of $43.6 billion US, and Bloomberg is No. 8 with $40 billion US. Ellison’s net worth dropped over $10 billion, from $54.2 billion last year, while Bloomberg’s wealth increased from about $35.5 billion.
Zuckerberg, who is still one of the youngest billionaires, announced last December that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, will donate 99 per cent of their shares in the social media company over the course of their lifetimes.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are Nos. 12 and 13 on the list with $35.2 billion US and $34.4 billion US, respectively.
Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate and influential Republican donor, saw his wealth drop to $25.2 billion US from $31.4 billion last year, falling to No. 22 on the list.
Hedge fund manager George Soros ($24.9 billion), Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell ($19.8 billion), Brazilian-Jewish banker Joseph Safra ($17.2 billion), investor Carl Icahn ($17 billion) and hedge fund manager James Simons ($15.5 billion) are the other Jews in the top 50.
While Jewish women are far outnumbered by their male counterparts, several are billionaires, including Israeli businesswoman Shari Arison ($3.9 billion), Pritzker family scion Karen Pritzker ($3.8 billion), Lynn Schusterman ($3.4 billion), Joan Tisch ($3.3 billion) and Gap co-founder Doris Fisher ($2.6 billion).
Sheryl Sandberg makes the cut with a net worth of $1.2 billion. The influential Facebook COO and Lean In author donated about $31 million of Facebook stock to multiple charities earlier this year.
The non-Jewish Bill Gates remains at the top of the list — where he has been for the past three years, and 17 of the past 22 — with a net worth of $75 billion.
Forbes found 1,810 billionaires worldwide, down from the 1,826 a year ago.
Photo: Brian Solis Flickr page
