Mark Zuckerberg overtakes Jeff Bezos to become world’s second-richest person

Mark Zuckerberg is now the world’s second-richest person, ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, after shares of Facebook’s parent company Meta rose sharply on its strong second-quarter results.

The founder and chief executive of Meta now has a personal fortune worth $206 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That puts him $1 billion ahead of Mr Bezos and $50 billion behind Tesla’s founder and chief executive Elon Musk, the world's richest man.

The majority of Mr Zuckerberg's wealth is derived from his 13 per cent stake in the Menlo Park, California-based firm, the world’s biggest social media company.

Mr Zuckerberg has seen his fortune grow $78 billion so far this year, the most of any of the world’s 500 richest people tracked by the Bloomberg index. The 40-year-old has gained four spots this year on the wealth index. He was also one of the biggest wealth movers of 2023.

He could receive a payout of about $700 million a year from Meta's first-ever dividend announced for investors this year. In February, Meta announced plans to buy back an additional $50 billion in shares and issue its first quarterly dividend since listing in May 2012.

Meta shares have risen 23 per cent since it reported better-than-expected sales in the second quarter. The stock closed at an all-time high of $582.77 on Thursday.

The Facebook parent beat Wall Street estimates for revenue and profit in the second quarter. It reported revenue growth of 22 per cent annually to $39.07 billion in the three-month period, marking a fourth straight quarter of growth in excess of 20 per cent. Net income jumped 73 per cent to $13.47 billion.

It is spending heavily on artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality technology, a big area of focus for investors. Meta has been pouring money into data centre infrastructure and computing power that Mr Zuckerberg said is necessary to stay ahead of the competition.

In 2022, Mr Zuckerberg shed $71 billion – or 57 per cent – from his net worth as the stock market bear run eroded the personal wealth of many of the world’s technology billionaires.

A billionaire’s net worth is typically tied to the equity of their companies and can live and die on the back of volatile global stock markets.

Mr Zuckerberg's wealth rout began in February 2022, when he fell out of the list of the world’s top 10 wealthiest people – and the elite $100 billion club – for the first time since 2015, Reuters reported.

At the time, he lost $29 billion of his net worth after Meta’s stock recorded its biggest one-day fall on February 4, when it dropped by 26 per cent and erased more than $200 billion from the company’s market capitalisation.

Mr Zuckerberg’s one-day wealth decline in February 2022 is among the biggest in history and came after Mr Musk’s $35 billion single-day paper loss in November 2020, Reuters reported. The Facebook founder ended 2022 with a net worth of $44 billion and was ranked the world's 25th-wealthiest person, down from a high of number three in 2021.

However, Mr Musk holds the world record for the biggest wealth loss in history after shedding $182 billion from his net worth between November 2021 and January 2023, the Guinness World Records said.

In March this year, Mr Musk was knocked off his perch as the world’s richest person after the electric vehicle maker’s shares tumbled. In the span of only one day, Mr Musk lost $17.6 billion from his personal fortune, pushing him out of the $200 billion club and into second place on the index below Mr Bezos.

Mr Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard in 2004 at the age of 19 for students to match names with photos of classmates. He took Facebook public in May 2012 and now owns about 13 per cent of the company's stock, according to Forbes magazine.

Facebook changed its name to Meta Platforms in November 2021 in a sign it was shifting the company's focus to the metaverse.

In December 2015, Mr Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, pledged to give away 99 per cent of their Meta stake over their lifetimes.

Top 10 richest people in the world

1. Elon Musk – $256 billion

2. Mark Zuckerberg – $206 billion

3. Jeff Bezos – $205 billion

4. Bernard Arnault – $193 billion

5. Larry Ellison – $179 billion

6. Bill Gates – $161 billion

7. Larry Page – $150 billion

8. Steve Ballmer – $145 billion

9. Warren Buffett – $143 billion

10. Sergey Brin – $141 billion

Source: Bloomberg Billionaires Index