The comeback from 6th place in the list of richest billionaires on the planet in early 2024 to the current number 1 in the world is making Mark Zuckerberg the center of attention of the rich.
CNBC news agency said Mark Zuckerberg has surpassed Jeff Bezos to become the second richest billionaire in the world, below Elon Musk of Tesla.
However, what is most remarkable is that Mark Zuckerberg’s assets increased to 78 billion USD in 2024, becoming the most successful billionaire this year and potentially surpassing Elon Musk to hold the title of richest person on the planet for the first time.
World No. 1
Bloomberg Billionaires Index data shows that the assets of Meta (Facebook) boss reached 206.2 billion USD, surpassing Jeff Bezos’ 205.1 billion USD and only 50 billion USD less than Elon Musk.
Business Insider (BI) reported that while Mark Zuckerberg’s assets have increased sharply since the beginning of the year, his competitors like Jeff Bezos have only increased by 25 billion USD, and Elon Musk has only increased by 19 billion USD.
Sharing the same view, CNBC news agency said that with holding 13% of Meta shares, the increase in the stock price of this group has increased Mark Zuckerberg’s assets more than any billionaire in the Bloomberg Index’s ranking of the 500 richest people on the planet.
Meta shares closed at a record high of $582.77 per share on October 3, 2024, up 68% year-to-date.
In early 2024, Meta’s CEO was ranked 6th in the rankings, but now he is aiming for Elon Musk’s number 1 position.
According to BI, although still behind Elon Musk, thanks to the rising price of technology stocks, they can be quickly leveled.
Elon Musk himself will only have $164 billion in April 2024, while Jeff Bezos is still less than Mark Zuckerberg’s current assets in early January this year.
Therefore, just a few sessions of Tesla and Amazon’s decline and Meta’s increase are enough for Mark Zuckerberg to do something that has never happened before, which is to become the richest billionaire in the world.
BI newspaper said that although Meta, Tesla and Amazon are all technology stocks, while Mark Zuckerberg does not face many challenges, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are facing many problems, from antitrust investigations, personal lawsuits, poor business results reports to other troubles.
Any negative event could drag down Tesla and Amazon stock prices, giving Mark Zuckerberg a chance to rise.
Another factor that could affect the position of the world’s richest person is that Mark Zuckerberg is only 40 years old, much younger than Elon Musk (53 years old) and Jeff Bezos (60 years old).
So the Facebook founder has more time to build his fortune.
Investors’ expectations for Mark Zuckerberg are currently very high as the founder has limited his indiscriminate spending on the virtual universe, instead tightening cost control by laying off workers en masse, and pouring money into key technology areas such as artificial intelligence.
Meta’s Q2 2024 financial report showed revenue increased 22% to $39.07 billion, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of revenue growth exceeding 20%. Of which, about 98% of sales came from advertising, mainly on Facebook and Instagram.
This growth rate is twice as high as Google’s advertising revenue.