Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has overtaken Jeff Bezos to become the world’s second-richest person, with a net worth of $206.2 billion as of Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This figure surpasses Bezos’s net worth of $205.1 billion. Zuckerberg is now about $50 billion behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Since the start of the year, Zuckerberg’s wealth has surged by $78 billion, driven by a 13% stake in Meta. The company’s shares closed at a record high of $582.77 on Thursday, marking a 68% increase from their January price of $346.29. This climb highlights how Zuckerberg’s fortune has risen alongside investor confidence in Meta’s growing profits this year.
In 2024, Wall Street has consistently praised Meta, with the company reporting quarterly earnings that have consistently exceeded analyst expectations. In July, Meta announced a 22% increase in second-quarter sales, reaching $39.07 billion, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of over 20% revenue growth.
Meta credits its substantial investments in artificial intelligence for improving its online advertising performance, especially after facing setbacks in 2021 when Apple’s iOS privacy update limited its tracking capabilities. The company had warned in February 2022 that these privacy changes could lead to a $10 billion revenue loss.
In late 2022, Zuckerberg implemented a major cost-cutting strategy that resulted in the layoffs of approximately 21,000 employees, or about a quarter of Meta’s workforce. Investors responded positively to these cuts as Meta’s advertising business began to recover, bolstered by significant digital ad spending from retailers like Temu and Shein.
While Meta continues to invest heavily in virtual and augmented reality technologies for its metaverse vision, investors have shown increased patience as long as the company’s core advertising business remains strong. Recently, Meta launched its Orion AR glasses, which received favorable reviews from initial testers.
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