Facebook lands six on Forbes billionaires list

As Facebook’s value has surged, so have the fortunes of its founders. On the 2011 Forbes “World’s Billionaires” list, six of Facebook’s early architects have made the cut.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg sits atop the company’s richest, ranking in as the 52nd richest person in the world. That’s a significant jump from last year, which had him at number 212 on the Forbes list.

Zuckerberg’s fortune more than tripled since 2010, surging from $4 billion to $13.5 billion this year, primarily due to Facebook’s $50 billion valuation after a $1.5 billion cash injection by Goldman Sachs.

Co-founder Dustin Moskovitz is next in line, at $2.7 billion. With a mere 26 years under his belt, Moskovitz is the world’s youngest billionaire. This year is Moskovitz’s first time to make the Forbes list.

Former Facebook president (and co-founder of Napster) Sean Parker secures his spot with a $1.6 billion fortune. Facebook investor Peter Thiel follows with $1.5 billion. And Russian investor Yuri Milner rounds out the bottom end with a worth of $1 billion.

Eduardo Saverin, whose ousting from Facebook was made famous as the primary story line of Academy Award-nominated film The Social Network, also made the list, with Forbes estimating that his settlement with Zuckerberg earned him about $1.6 billion.

“Shed no tears for Eduardo,” Steve Forbes, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, tells the Guardian. “If you do get to be thrown out, a billion dollars isn’t a bad severance package.”

The list’s top three remains unchanged from last year, with Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet at No. 3 ($50 billion) and Microsoft founder Bill Gates at No. 2 ($56 billion). Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu takes the title of “world’s richest person” with a fortune worth $74 billion.

Overall, Forbes estimates that there the world has a total of 1,210 billionaires.