Facebook founder on elite list

BY STEPHANIE GASKELL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, March 6th 2008, 4:00 AM

Meet the youngest billionaire in the world: 23-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

He launched the social-networking site from his Harvard dorm room in 2004. Now it's worth a whopping $1.5 billion, earning him the 785th spot on Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's richest billionaires.

"He is the youngest self-made billionaire in human history," said the magazine's editor-in-chief Steve Forbes.

The list - which ranks the 1,125 richest people across the globe - features 50 people under the age of 40, including 35-year-old Google co-founder Larry Page, who is worth $18.6 billion.

But it's still the older guys at the top of the list.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, 77, finally knocked his pal Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 52, out of the No. 1 slot. Buffett is worth a staggering $62 billion. In second place is Mexican telecom titan Carlos Slim Helu, 68, with $60 billion.

Gates dropped to third place with $58billion when Microsoft stocks dropped after it made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! in January.

The Forbes list shows that the United States by far still has the most billionaires (469), but Russia, India and China are quickly moving up the ladder, with 87, 53 and 42 billionaires, respectively.

The U.S. did fall in one respect: Two years ago, America had 10 billionaires in the Top 20. Now there are only four Yanks in that group.

Four of the billionaires in the Top 10 are from India.

And in a shocker, Moscow has now replaced New York City as home to the most billionaires.

There are 74 billionaires in the one-time Communist capital, compared with 71 in the Big Apple.

Among the city's richest is, of course, Mayor Bloomberg, who was moved up on the list after Forbes editors recalculated his estimated wealth. Last year, Hizzoner ranked 142nd with $5.5 billion. Now he's listed 65th with $11.5 billion.

There are 226 new entries on the list, including Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who ranks 897th with $1.3 billion.

The world's richest woman is Liliane Bettencourt of France. The owner of L'Oreal ranks 17th with $22.9 billion - because she's worth it.

sgaskell@nydailynews.com