California: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reached a significant milestone, joining the exclusive $200 billion net worth club, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. His wealth has surged to $201 billion, making him the fourth-richest person globally, behind Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault.
Elon Musk currently leads the wealth rankings with $272 billion, followed by Jeff Bezos at $211 billion and Bernard Arnault at $207 billion. Zuckerberg’s fortune is primarily linked to his 13 percent stake in Meta, which comprises approximately 345.5 million shares.
In 2024 alone, Zuckerberg’s net worth has increased by $73.4 billion, surpassing tech leaders like Oracle’s Larry Ellison and former Microsoft executives Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. This remarkable financial growth is largely attributed to a nearly 60 percent rise in Meta’s stock price this year, with shares reaching over $560.
Investors have shown strong enthusiasm for Meta, with the company trading at about 24 times its forward earnings, just shy of the Nasdaq 100’s average of 26 times. During the recent Meta Connect 2024 event, Zuckerberg emphasized the company’s commitment to artificial intelligence, announcing that Meta AI is poised to become the most widely used AI assistant, nearing 500 million monthly active users.
“We haven’t even launched in major markets like the European Union,” Zuckerberg remarked, pointing to substantial growth potential ahead.
Zuckerberg’s ascent comes after a challenging period for him personally and for Meta, especially following setbacks in metaverse investments that cost him over $100 billion in 2022. However, the launch of products such as the Orion augmented reality glasses signals a successful shift in Meta’s strategy from social media to a more robust presence in the metaverse industry.
Zuckerberg is not alone in capitalizing on the tech boom this year; Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison have seen their net worths increase by $62.2 billion and $58.6 billion, respectively.
