Zuckerberg's paper wealth puts him ahead of backer Peter Thiel on Forbes list
Forbes is out with its annual list of the 400 Richest Americans again and thanks to Microsoft, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on it at number 321 with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion. What's kind of ridiculous is that according to the list, Zuckerberg has more money than his original backer, founder of the Clarium Capital hedge fund and PayPal, Peter Thiel.Zuckerberg lives in an unfurnished one bedroom apartment and Facebook, which Zuckerberg doesn't even entirely own, will earn revenues of only $300 million this year. Meanwhile, Thiel — who rents a mansion, not an apartment — runs a $5.5 billion hedge fund, which though it lost $1 billion in August is still up 27 percent so far this year and is on target for its usual annual return of over 30 percent. Sure, given Facebook's popularity among the normals, Zuckerberg could someday possess much more actual wealth than Thiel. But that'll only happen if Zuckerberg's continues to obey Thiel's infamous command — "don't blow it" — an outcome key Zuckerberg hires have made far from certain.