Internet entrepreneurs dominate Top 10 list of billionaires under 40

isaac

April 21, 2015 4:51 PM

Those who strongly believe that there is a link between college education and financial success need to have a rethink. Several college dropouts were featured on the list of the world's richest under-40 billionaires released recently by Wealth X.

Mark Zuckerberg

Top on the list is Facebook boss, Mark Zuckerberg, whose $35 billion fortune far outstrips the rest on the list. His social networking platform has contributed to the success of many young billionaires.

In fact, nearly half of the top 10 started out with Facebook: Aside Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Sean Parker, and Eduardo Saverin are all among the top 10.

Moskovitz, a Harvard dropout is worth $7.7 billion. Parker, Facebook's first president who didn't bother attending college at all, is worth $5.2 billion.

On the third spot is Whatsapp co-founder, Jan Koum, whose fortune actually came on the heels of Facebook's acquisition of Whatsapp in 2014 for a whopping $19 billion. He also dropped out of San Jose University.

Just two women make the top 40 under-40 billionaires list. Yang Huiyan, Chinese real estate heiress, occupies the sixth spot with a net worth of $5.1 billion, which makes her the richest woman in Asia.

On the eighth spot is Elizabeth Holmes, another college dropout who owns the laboratory-diagnostic firm Theranos. She is worth $4.5 billion.

Most billionaires in the top 40 list are from the United States. In fact, seven of those in the top 10 are Americans, while the remaining three come from China, India, and Brazil.

Content provided by TopCheck.com.ng - Nigeria's free price comparison tool for financial products

isaac