Mark Zuckerberg joins Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates in $100 billion club as Facebook stock climbs
Mark Zuckerberg's wealth soared as Facebook shares went up this week on reports of the company launching a TikTok rival. Here's how the world's richest stack up.
Mark Zuckerberg's wealth crossed $100 billion for the first time, making him the third person in the world to become a centi-billionaire after Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
The CEO added $22.1 billion to his net worth since the start of the year, and is ranked third on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg's fortune swelled as Facebook stocks surged six percent after news broke that the social networking giant is gearing up to launch a TikTok rival.
The Facebook CEO owns about 13 percent stake in the company that he founded in 2004. Given the massive valuation of the tech corporation, even minor share price movement can lead to big fluctuations in the wealth of shareholders.
Earlier this week, Facebook rolled out its TikTok-like feature Instagram Reels in the US, after launching it in India last month. However, following the Trump administration's ban on TikTok and WeChat, the US market is open for newer product launches.
This comes shortly after speculations of Microsoft buying TikTok from ByteDance.
Big Tech's wealth gain
Despite the coronavirus pandemic crashing global economies, Big Tech companies have seen serious stock gains this year as people went online by the hordes. Consequently, the personal fortunes of their respective founders and CEOs have also skyrocketed.
Zuckerberg has been among the biggest wealth gainers in 2020.
CEO Bezos is the leader of the pack with a $75 billion wealth gain. He's worth $190 billion now, and is on course to become the first to reach $200 billion. CEO Elon Musk is another big gainer, having added $42.7 billion to his fortune in 2020.
According to Bloomberg,
"The five largest American tech companies — , Amazon.com Inc., , Facebook, and Microsoft Corp. — currently have market valuations equivalent to about 30 percent of US gross domestic product (GDP), nearly double what they were at the end of 2018."
Other top wealth accumulators this year include Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, who added $21.6 billion to his fortune this year. He's the fifth richest person in the world now ahead of Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page.
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta