Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg joins $200 billion club

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has officially joined the exclusive $200 billion net worth club, placing him among the top three wealthiest people in the world.

According to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, Zuckerberg now trails only Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who leads with $265 billion, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with $216 billion.

The bulk of Zuckerberg's fortune stems from his 13% stake in Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. In 2023, Meta generated $134.9 billion in revenue and attracted nearly four billion monthly active users.

This year, Zuckerberg’s net worth surged by $71.8 billion, catapulting him ahead of tech moguls like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and former Microsoft CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

A key driver behind Zuckerberg’s soaring wealth is the significant rise in Meta’s stock, which has jumped nearly 60% since January, reaching record highs of over $560 per share.

The company’s valuation has ignited strong investor interest, with Meta trading at 24 times forward earnings, just below the Nasdaq 100’s ratio of 26.

At the Meta Connect 2024 event, Zuckerberg emphasized the company's advancements in artificial intelligence, particularly Meta AI, which is poised to become the most widely used assistant worldwide.

“We’re nearing 500 million monthly active users, and we haven’t even launched in some major markets like the European Union,” he announced.

Zuckerberg isn't alone in seeing substantial gains this year. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Oracle’s Larry Ellison have also seen their net worths climb significantly, growing by $62.2 billion and $58.6 billion, respectively.