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.com Inc.’s Bezos and almost $50 billion behind Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk.

Meta shares have risen 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 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 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% stake in the Menlo Park, California-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 co-founder and chief executive officer has gained four spots this year on the wealth index.

Source: Bloomberg
--Agencies