Mark Zuckerberg Becomes World's Second Richest Person, Closing In On Elon Musk

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's net worth hit $206.2 billion on Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the second-richest person in the world, surpassing Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

As Meta's shares closed at a record $582.77 on Thursday, which is a 68% rise from early January when its shares were trading at $346.29, Zuckerberg topped Bezos' $205.1 billion net worth. He holds 13% shares in the California-based company, Meta Platforms Inc.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the 40-year-old Facebook co-founder is approximately $50 billion behind tech billionaire Elon Musk. The report said that Zuckerberg's net worth has surged by $78 billion since the start of the year, outpacing that of any other member on the Bloomberg Index's list of the 500 richest individuals.

This year, Meta has consistently exceeded analysts estimates on quarterly earnings. In July, the company reported a sales growth of 22% for the second quarter, adding $39.07 billion to its revenue. This marked the fourth straight quarter of revenue growth exceeding 20%, CNBC reported.

Meta has attributed its sales growth to substantial investments in artificial intelligence, which have helped it grow its online advertising capabilities. This progress comes despite suffering a setback in 2021 when Apple's iOS privacy update severely impacted Meta's ability to track users across the web.

The update made it harder for Meta to collect data on user behavior impacting its ads, leading to a drop in revenue. The following year, Meta claimed the privacy settings would cost it a loss of $10 billion in revenue. And in the same year, the Facebook owner said the company would go ahead with a massive cost-cutting plan. Soon after, Meta sacked 21,000 workers, nearly a quarter of the company's workforce.

As investors responded positively to the company's cost-cutting efforts, its online advertising business too started to recover, boosted by huge ad spending from Chinese retailers Temu and Shein. Investors also favored Meta's heavy investment in augmented reality technologies, as long as the company's core advertising business remained healthy.

Meta has been investing heavily in virtual and augmented reality technologies, which it claims are essential to developing the futuristic vision of the metaverse. In addition to building state-of-the-art data centers and expanding its computing power to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving AI race, Fortune reported.

Last month, Meta unveiled its highly anticipated Orion AR glasses, positioning them as the most advanced augmented reality glasses the company has ever developed. The company said it will refine the AR display technology and scale up production to make the product more accessible to a broader audience.

During its launch, Meta also promised to unveil more devices in the future.