Mark Zuckerburg, the 27-year old co-founder of online networking website Facebook, has jumped 21 places to rank fourteenth on the Forbes 400, the annual ranking of America’s richest individuals, the latest version of which attests to the wealth creation power of the tech sector.

With an estimated net worth of $17.5 billion, the poster-boy of the social media revolution is now worth more than Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They rank joint fifteenth with an estimated $16.7 billion. Google chairman Eric Schmidt is in joint fiftieth position, along with eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, both with fortunes of $6.2 billion.

Forbes’ thirtieth annual rich list, published last week, was testimony to the amount of money that can be made in the online technology sector. Almost all of the US’ current richest people have earned their fortunes through the internet.

With $59 billion of assets, Microsoft tycoon and chairman Bill Gates ranked first again, reigning supreme for nearly 16 years running (except in 2008 when he ranked third). His colleague, Steve Ballmer, CEO of the software giant, ranked number 19 with a fortune of $13.9 billion.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos came in just ahead of Zuckerburg at thirteenth place, with a fortune of $19.1 billion.

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, rose three places to number 39 with a net worth of $7 billion.

Michael Dell, founder of the eponymous software company, was in eighteenth place with assets estimated at $15 billion, while Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen came in at twenty-third with $13.2 billion.