Mark Zuckerberg's massive wealth gain this year means he now trails Jeff Bezos, the world's second-richest person, by only $4 billion. If he passes the Amazon founder, only Tesla CEO Elon Musk will stand in his way of taking the top spot.
The CEO of Meta Platforms - Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp's parent company - has grown his net worth by an astounding $76 billion since January to reach $204 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Zuckerberg now ranks third on the rich list, behind only Musk (worth $269 billion) and Bezos ($208 billion). The social media mogul started the year in sixth but now comfortably leads LVMH's Bernard Arnault ($195 billion) and Oracle's Larry Ellison ($180 billion) in fourth and fifth place respectively.
He could surge past Bezos any day now, but he still trails Musk by some distance. Yet he could quickly narrow the gap as technology fortunes are notoriously volatile; Musk's net worth was below Zuckerberg's current wealth as recently as mid-June, and he was worth as little as $164 billion in April. A few bad days for Tesla, and a few good ones for Meta, could allow Zuckerberg to snatch first place.
It's true that Meta, Tesla, and Amazon trade similarly as all three are mega-cap tech stocks, meaning Zuckerberg, Musk, and Bezos' fortunes tend to rise and fall in tandem. But a bad earnings report, a bombshell lawsuit, an antitrust investigation, or a disaster of any kind could knock Musk and Bezos below Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg could also climb to the peak if Musk and Bezos make some large philanthropic donations. After all, the only reason that Warren Buffett isn't the richest person on the planet with a $300 billion-plus net worth is that he's donated more than half his Berkshire Hathaway stock.
The Meta chief has been outpacing Musk and Bezos in wealth accumulation this year, putting him on track to overtake them. His $76 billion gain since January far surpasses their respective increases of around $40 billion and $31 billion.
Zuckerberg, 40, probably has more time than Musk, 53, and Bezos, 60, to grow his already vast fortune. Buffett amassed over 99% of his fortune after turning 65, author Morgan Housel notes in "The Psychology of Money." That shows how powerful a long time horizon is in compounding wealth.
Despite being far younger, Zuckerberg commands a greater net worth than business titans Bill Gates, Buffett, and the "Google Guys," Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Early start
Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 when he was 19 and took it public in 2012 at age 28. Meta now stands as the world's sixth-largest public company with an almost $1.5 trillion market capitalization, making it more valuable than Buffett's Berkshire ($985 billion), Musk's Tesla ($824 billion), Walmart ($653 billion), JPMorgan ($589 billion), and many other corporate behemoths.
Zuckerberg has staged quite a comeback in recent years. Meta stock tanked by more than 75% between September 2021 and November 2022 as investors balked at its leader's decision to plow tens of billions of dollars into its nascent metaverse business, and soured on tech stocks more broadly. The slump slashed Zuckerberg's net worth to just $35 billion at its nadir.
But the stock has soared over fivefold since then - and 89% in the past year - to hover at record levels of above $570. The rally, which has more than quintupled Zuckerberg's net worth, reflects Wall Street betting that Meta will win big from the AI revolution, and investors' relief that Zuckerberg has reined in his spending.
Zuckerberg hasn't edged past Bezos or started nipping at Musk's heels yet, but his strong momentum and the vicissitudes of tech wealth could mean that soon changes
Comments