Technology News

Mark Zuckerberg Overtakes Jeff Bezos as World's Second-Richest Person

04 October 2024

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Zaker Adham

Summary

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has officially surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, becoming the world's second-richest individual, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

As of Thursday, Zuckerberg’s net worth reached an impressive $206.2 billion, surpassing Bezos' $205.1 billion. Zuckerberg now only trails Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, who is ahead by roughly $50 billion.

This surge in Zuckerberg’s fortune, driven largely by his 13% ownership stake in Meta, marks an extraordinary $78 billion rise since the start of the year, making him the fastest-growing billionaire among the top 500 tracked by Bloomberg. Meta’s stock price has soared 68% since January, closing at a record $582.77 on Thursday, a significant leap from $346.29 at the beginning of 2024.

Zuckerberg’s ascent highlights investor confidence in Meta, especially after the company consistently exceeded earnings projections throughout the year. In July, Meta reported a remarkable 22% rise in second-quarter revenues to $39.07 billion, marking its fourth consecutive quarter of 20%+ revenue growth.

One key driver of Meta's resurgence has been its heavy investment in artificial intelligence, which has enhanced the performance of its online advertising platform. This comes after a difficult period in 2021, when Apple’s iOS privacy changes severely impacted Meta's ad-tracking capabilities. The company estimated a $10 billion revenue hit due to the changes but has since rebounded thanks to improvements in AI.

In addition to AI, Zuckerberg implemented substantial cost-cutting measures in late 2022, resulting in a reduction of 21,000 jobs, around 25% of Meta’s workforce. Investors welcomed these cuts, which coincided with a recovery in the company’s ad business. Chinese e-commerce giants Temu and Shein contributed to the recovery by significantly increasing their digital ad spend on Meta’s platforms.

Despite continued investment in virtual and augmented reality technologies for the future metaverse, Zuckerberg has kept investor confidence intact by maintaining strong returns in the core online advertising business. Meta’s latest AR prototype, the Orion AR glasses, has already received favorable feedback from early testers.