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

MARK Zuckerberg became the world’s second-richest person for the first time on Thursday (Oct 3) , jumping ahead of Jeff Bezos as shares of Meta Platforms continue to climb.

Zuckerberg’s bet on the metaverse – which initially looked like a huge bust – has paid off in recent months, pushing his net worth to a high-water mark of US$206.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That puts him US$1.1 billion ahead of Amazon.com’s Bezos and almost US$50 billion behind Tesla’s Elon Musk.

Meta shares have risen 23 per cent since reporting better-than-expected sales in the second quarter and touting its push into the type of large language models that power artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. The stock closed on Thursday at an all-time high of US$582.77.

Meta has spent heavily on data centres and computing power as Zuckerberg works to build a leading position in the industry-wide AI race. The company has also moved ahead with other long-term projects, including its Orion augmented reality glasses, which the company introduced last month

Zuckerberg, who owns a 13 per cent stake in the Menlo Park, California-based company, has seen his fortune grow US$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 co-founder and chief executive officer has gained four spots this year on the wealth index. BLOOMBERG