Mark Zuckerberg Surpasses Jeff Bezos: Meta's Exceptional Comeback

Mark Zuckerberg finally edged out Jeff Bezos to become the world's second richest person, with a net worth of $206.2 billion on October 4, 2024. This translates to a huge increase in wealth, primarily due to surging of an astonishing 70% in Meta's stock during the year itself, a testament to enormous investor confidence and sharp performance in its core business - advertising.

Key Highlights

• Net Worth Comparison: Zuckerberg's net worth is now nearly $1.1 billion more than Bezos, who comes in at $205.1 billion
• Year-to-Date Growth: For 2024 so far, the billionaire's fortune has grown by a staggering $78 billion, making him the biggest wealth gainer among the world's 500 richest people tracked by Bloomberg.
• The shares of Meta reached a record high, closing at $582.77 from the beginning of this year when shares were trading at around $346.
• Strategic Investments: This growth is attributed to strategic investments on the part of Meta in both artificial intelligence and augmented reality, such as the newly launched Orion AR glasses, which, for some early users, has been hailed as a success.

Current Wealth Rankings (Top 3)

Meta Platforms made a series of strategic efforts that have mostly appeared in making its stock inflate in 2024 to enable Mark Zuckerberg to surpass Jeff Bezos in net worth. Among the major strategic efforts made are:

1. Heavily investing in Artificial Intelligence

Meta has pumped approximately $70 billion into AI technologies in the past couple of years. This is a huge investment that already helped restore, in part, the lost advertisement targeting capabilities which were more pressing at the back end of 2022 due to Apple's App Tracking Transparency update. These AI developments also strengthen the advertising business and enable Meta to be at the top of the AI market, with revenues growing annually by more than 20 percent.

2. Solid Earnings Results

Meta announced the quarterly earnings results where it reported a 22% jump in revenue to $39.07 billion and an impressive leap of 73% to $13.47 billion net income. These results surpassed every Wall Street expectation and represented the fourth quarter in a row of growth over 20%, which strengthened investor sentiment to 25.

3. Buy-Back Program through Shares

Meta recently announced a huge share buyback program of $50 billion that will help stock positively as these numbers will reduce outstanding shares and raise EPS. Both decisions have received positive sentiments from investors, thereby triggering the bullish feeling about its stocks.

4. Declaration of Dividends

It is the first quarterly dividend announced by Meta since the public listing in 2012. It will provide huge returns to shareholders and increase investor interest.

5. Long Term Projects Focus

The company continues to invest in long-term initiatives such as augmented reality with the launching of Orion AR glasses. This is in line with market trends and investor interests, further affirming Meta's leadership as a forward-thinking tech leader 5.

6. Positive Market Sentiment

Despite this company facing heavy criticism on many social issues, the investor still has a positive sentiment because Meta has been reporting strong earnings and strategic moves. On the whole, market sentiment turns out positive with an upgoing trend for its growing prospects at Meta.

All these strategies not only have lifted Meta stock to new heights but have depicted its competitive edge in the tech industry, in turn illustrating a comeback for this company from the challenges it previously faced.

Zuckerberg's ascent in the billionaire rankings reflects a remarkable turnaround for Meta, especially following a challenging period that included significant layoffs and stock declines in previous years. His leadership and focus on innovation have positioned Meta favourably within the tech industry, allowing it to regain investor trust and market value.