Tech’s youngest billionaires
Forbes has listed the youngest billionaires in the world, and of the listed wunderkinds under the age of 40, eight play in the tech arena.
Forbes says that there are currently 1,426 billionaires in the world, but only 23 are under 40 years of age.
While there’s a showing by young billionaires in the mining sector, dairy, steel industry and even a producer of sunflower oil, eight of these fresh faces play in the field of technology – with four from social network giant, Facebook, alone.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Mark Zuckerberg, top the list as the youngest billionairs at the age of 28 – though Moskovitz is worth close to $10 billion less than Zuckerberg.
Another Facebook co-founder, Eduardo Saverin, pegs a bit further down at the age of 30.
Sean Parker, the 33 year-old Napster founder, who is currently working on video chat site, Airtime, also served as Facebook’s first president when he was 24.
Other listed players in the tech space are:
- 36 year-old founder and CEO of social-network game site operator Gree, Yoshikazu Tanaka;
- 36 year-old co-founder and leader of 160-character microblogging social network, Twitter;
- 36 year-old founder of cell phone retailer Svyaznoy, Maxim Nogotkov;
- 37 year-old CEO of the GoPro camera company, Nicholas Woodman.
At 37, Chase Coleman is also listed on the under 40s billionaire list, with a net worth of $1.4 billion.
Coleman heads up the Tiger Global Management investment firm, which is a large player in the South African e-commerce space.
Chase Coleman caricature
Through Tiger Global Management’s venture capital fund, the firm owns shares in South Africa’s largest online auction website, BidorBuy, which in-turn owns 100% of Ubuntu Deal and has a minority stake in PayFast.
Tiger Global further owns a majority shareholding in Private Property, which in-turn has minority stakes in Safari Now and a number of motoring, property and employment businesses in East and West Africa.
The youngest billionaires
| # | Name | Net worth | Age |
| 1 | Dustin Moskovitz | $3.8 billion | 28 |
| 2 | Mark Zuckerberg | $13.3 billion | 28 |
| 3 | Albert von Thurn und Taxis | $1.5 billion | 29 |
| 4 | Scott Duncan | $5.1 billion | 30 |
| 5 | Eduardo Saverin | $2.2 billion | 30 |
| 6 | Huiyan Yang | $5.7 billion | 31 |
| 7 | Fahd Hariri | $1.35 billion | 32 |
| 8 | Marie Besnier Beauvalot | $1.5 billion | 32 |
| 9 | Sean Parker | $2 billion | 33 |
| 10 | Ayman Hariri | $1.35 billion | 34 |
| 11 | Yvonne Bauer | $2.4 billion | 35 |
| 12 | Yoshikazu Tanaka | $1.8 billion | 36 |
| 13 | Maxim Nogotkov | $1.3 billion | 36 |
| 14 | Alejandro Santo Domingo Davila | $11.7 billion | 36 |
| 15 | Jack Dorsey | $1.1 billion | 36 |
| 16 | Serra Sabanci | $1.3 billion | 37 |
| 17 | Nicholas Woodman | $1.3 billion | 37 |
| 18 | Chase Coleman | $1.4 billion | 37 |
| 19 | Ryan Kavanaugh | $1 billion | 38 |
| 20 | Andrey Verevskiy | $1 billion | 38 |
| 21 | John Arnold | $2.8 billion | 38 |
| 22 | Kostyantin Zhevago | $1.5 billion | 39 |
| 23 | Fang Wei | $1.5 billion | 39 |
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