Jan Koum, who sold What s App to Facebook.
Travis Kalanick, the hard charging CEO of ride sharing firm Uber.
And Elizabeth Holmes, the CEO of Theranos, which aims to revolutionize consumers access to medical tests and information.
They are among the 27 new billionaires on the 2014 Forbes 400. Also there is Nicholas Woodman, the founder of GoPro, the San Mateo based wearable camera firm that went public in June.
At the very top are the regulars: Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, still the country s wealthiest, as he has been for more than 20 years.
Warren Buffett, the elder statesman of investors, is No. 2 followed by Larry Ellison, who just dropped the role of CEO of Oracle. He is worth about $50 billion.
But there are some key changes. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, ranked 11th, with his net worth at $34 billion, up from $19 billion last year. MarketWatch speculates that given the rate his wealth is growing, Zuckerberg should be in the top 10 by next year and maybe soon in the top 5.
Perhaps more significantly, Forbes introduced for the first time a self made score, which according to CNN Money, shows a big increase in the number of self-made billionaires:
In 2014, more than two-thirds of the people on the list made their own fortunes. By contrast, more than half were born into wealth just 20 years ago.
Horatio Alger lives.
Above: Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of Theranos, and new to the Forbes 400 list. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
