Zuckerberg overtakes Bezos to become the second richest person in the world

(Bloomberg) — Mark Zuckerberg became the world's second-richest person for the first time on Thursday, overtaking Jeff Bezos, as shares of Meta Platforms Inc. continued to rise.

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According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zuckerberg's bet on the metaverse – which initially looked like a major bust – has paid off in recent months, driving his net worth to a high of $206.2 billion. That puts him $1.1 billion ahead of Amazon.com Inc.'s Bezos and nearly $50 billion behind Tesla Inc.'s Elon Musk.

Meta shares have risen 23% since the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter sales and touted its foray into the kind of large-scale language models that power AI chatbots. The stock closed at an all-time high of $582.77 on Thursday.

Meta has invested heavily in data centers and computing power, while Zuckerberg works to build a leading position in the industry-wide AI competition. The company has also advanced other long-term projects, including the Orion augmented reality glasses, which the company unveiled last month.

Zuckerberg, who owns a 13% stake in the Menlo Park, California-based company, has seen his wealth gain $78 billion so far this year, more than all of the world's 500 richest people tracked by the Bloomberg index.

The 40-year-old co-founder and CEO has climbed four places in the wealth index this year.

– With support from Jack Witzig.

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