Mark Zuckerberg became the world’s second-richest person for the first time Thursday, jumping ahead of Jeff Bezos as shares of Meta Platforms Inc. 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 $206.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That puts him $1.1 billion ahead of Amazon’s Bezos and almost $50 billion behind Tesla’s Elon Musk.
Meta has seen shares rise 23% since reporting better-than-expected sales in the second quarter and touting its push into the type of large language models that power AI chatbots. The stock closed Thursday at an all-time high of $582.77.
Meta has spent heavily on data centers and computing power as Zuckerberg works to build a leading position in the industrywide AI race. The company has also moved ahead with other long-term projects, including its Orion augmented-reality glasses, introduced last month.
Zuckerberg, who owns a 13% stake in the Menlo Park, Calif.–based company, 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 cofounder and chief executive officer has gained four spots this year on the wealth index.