FACEBOOK founder Mark Zuckerberg will make up to £650 million by selling 30.2 million shares as part of the social network's stock market flotation.

However, Mr Zuckerberg plans to use much of the proceeds towards settling the tax bill when he exercises options to buy 60 million shares. Facebook plans to sell 337.4m shares, or 12.3% of the company, and the initial public offering (IPO) could raise up to $13.6bn (£8.4bn) although around half of that will go to shareholders.

The company has placed a valuation of between $28 and $35 for each share which would put it in the range of $77bn to $96bn.

Of the existing shareholders, venture capital firm Accel Partners could make $1.2bn if the shares sell at the mid-point valuation with investment bank Goldman Sachs, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and online game entrepreneur Mark Pincus also in line for large payouts.

Others such as Napster co-founder Sean Parker, Mr Zuckerberg's Harvard roommate Dustin Moskovitz and investment firm Andreessen Horowitz are holding on to their stakes for the time being.

The capital-raising target far outstrips other big internet IPOs. Google raised almost $2bn in 2004, while last year daily deals specialist Groupon tapped investors for $700m in and social gaming company Zynga raked in $1bn.

The Facebook stock is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq on May 18.

At the top end of the IPO range, the company would rival the market value of Amazon and Cisco Systems, which are worth just over $100bn.