With Facebook IPO Set, James Breyer, Peter Thiel, Dustin Moskovitz Set to Make Billions

As Facebook releases its IPO in a bid to raise $5 billion with a humongous stock offering, hundreds and maybe even thousands of company employees will likely become millionaires within months.

There are a select few, though, who stand to make much more than that. From the Facebook IPO filing which was released on Wednesday, these are three of the top shareholders who are set to make billions:

James W. Breyer is a venture capitalist for equity firm Accel Partners and sits on Facebook’s board.  Breyer and his company initially bet 12.7 million on Facebook, an investment which is now worth $5 billion. Breyer personally owns 1% of Facebook, which his company, Accel, owns 10% — the second biggest shareholder behind Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The 50-year-old Breyer also serves as a member of the board of directors at Dell, News Corporation, Etsy, Prosper Marketplace, and Wal-Mart. Breyer also had served as a member on the board of Marvel Entertainment until it was bought by Disney in 2009. Breyer holds a B.S. in interdisciplinary studies from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard.

As Forbes puts it “Everything (Breyer) touches — be it a hoodie-clad Harvard dropout or a comic book company — turns gold.”

Peter Thiel, Paypal’s founding CEO and the first outside investor in Facebook, is set to make multiple billions in the Facebook IPO. By some accounts, he may be the most successful technology investor of all-time.

Thiel was ranked No. 365 on the Forbes 400 in 2010, with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, a number that does not include his unrealized profits from his Facebook investment.  Thiel’s Facebook share alone was worth $1.7 billion in 2010.

Thiel is deeply pessimistic about the future of Western civilization. In an October 2011 essay entitled “The End of the Future,” Thiel argues that America has failed to make significant economic progress in the past four decades due to a lack of revolutionary scientific breakthroughs. This slowdown, he says, “threatens not just our financial markets, but the entire modern political order, which is predicated on easy and relentless growth.”

Dustin Moskovitz is a 27-year-old Gainesville, Florida, native who co-founded Facebook with Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes. Moskovitz owns a 7.6% share of Facebook. His net-worth in 2010 was estimated at $1.4 billion.

As he is eight days younger than Zuckerberg, Forbes in 2011 ranked Moskovitz as the youngest billionaire in the world. Take that, Zuckerberg.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons