This year's Forbes 400 list is out, ranking the nation's most obscenely rich people so they can feel stupendous about themselves. Unsurprisingly, lots of tech celebrities are on the list, and one has taken a huge leap: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuck jumped all the way to number 35 on the list thanks to the $4.9 billion he added to his fortune, totaling $6.9 billion. That's largely due to new evaluations of his company, which rate its value at around $23 billion, a whopping three times last year's estimate.
By contrast, Steve Jobs is almost destitute. Adding only $1 billion to his net worth in 2009, Jobs is worth an estimated $6.1 billion, which ranks him at a lowly #42. Forbes notes that the majority of his net worth comes from his Disney stocks rather than his Apple stocks--he's got nearly four times as much money from Disney as Apple.
Luckily, Mark Zuckerberg isn't merely sitting on his giant mountain of money, having a sliced money sandwich with money-mustard dressing on seven-currency bread and sipping on a moneyberry milkshake. The Wall Street Journal reports that Zuckerberg is set to announce a $100 million donation to the Newark, NJ public school system this week.
Newark, farming mecca or not, is one of the poorest large cities in the country, and its public school system is, on the whole, a disaster. Only half of its students secure a high-school diploma, and only 10% go on to four-year colleges. Zuckerberg is working with Newark mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to secure a matching $100 million from various private foundations. That $200 million would amount to well over 20% of the Newark public school system's total budget. All of which makes Facebook seem worth its stellar valuation.
Dan Nosowitz, the author of this post, can be followed on Twitter, corresponded with via email, and stalked in Brooklyn (no link for that one--you'll have to do the legwork yourself).