Mark Zuckerberg now richer than Google founders

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's personal fortunes have soared, thanks to investment fund GSV Capital's recent stake in the social networking site which has put the Harvard dropout at a worth higher than Google founder Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Earlier this week, GSV Capital Corp bought 225,000 shares in Facebook at an average price of USD 29.28 each.

This stake values the popular social networking site at about USD 70 billion.
 Based on the new investment, Zuckerberg in turn is worth approximately USD 18 billion, a report in Time magazine said.

"With the new valuation, Zuckerberg has one-upped Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, whose fortunes are estimated to have dropped," the Time report said.

This estimate makes Zuckerberg the third-richest man in the technology sector in the world, only behind Microsoft's Bill Gates and Oracle's Larry Ellison.

While Gates is estimated to be currently worth USD 56 billion, Ellison is the world's fifth-richest billionaire at USD 39.5 billion.

Earlier this year, Zuckerberg's net worth stood at USD 13.5 billion.

He had already shot past Apple's Steve Jobs last year and has now passed Google's Brin and Page, whose fortunes are now estimated to have dropped to USD 17 billion from USD 19.8 billion in March.