Mark Zuckerberg surpasses Jeff Bezos; becomes world’s second richest person

Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has surpassed retailer Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as the world’s second richest person.

Zuckerberg’s net worth rose to $206 billion on Friday, a new record for him, behind electric car manufacturer Tesla CEO Elon Musk ($256 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Jeff Bezos came third at $205 billion with a $2.6 billion decline on the day.

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 an all-time high of $582.77.

Meta has spent heavily on data centres 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.