Mark Zuckerberg has overtaken Jeff Bezos to become the second richest person in the world.
The Meta CEO and Facebook founder has a net worth of $225 billion, edging ahead of Bezos’ $223 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Both men still trail Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose net worth was valued at $370 billion as of Wednesday.
Why It Matters
The shift in the top billionaire rankings, which is dominated by technology companies, shows how volatile the personal fortunes tied to stock performance can be.
Meta, Amazon, and Tesla continue to play big roles in the global digital infrastructure, and the trends in these companies’ performance can have huge implications for both investors and consumers.
This development also reflects enduring investor confidence in artificial intelligence and digital advertising, sectors where Meta’s current strategy has outperformed many legacy competitors in recent quarters.
What To Know
Zuckerberg has increased his net worth by $17.3 billion since the beginning of 2025, while the rest of the top four in Bloomberg‘s ranking—Musk, Bezos, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison—have all seen losses. Musk is the biggest billionaire loser this year, having seen $62.2 billion wiped from his wealth since January.
Zuckerberg’s net worth largely comes from his personal stake in Meta. He owns roughly 13 percent of the tech company’s stock, which is up nearly 9 percent year-to-date and closed Wednesday at $635.50 per share.
Bezos remains Amazon’s largest individual shareholder. In November, he personally held just over 926 million Amazon shares, according to Business Insider, equal to just under 9 percent of the company’s roughly 10.4 billion outstanding shares.
Amazon stock is down 8.33 percent year-to-date and closed Wednesday at $201.12 per share.
In the first quarter of 2025, Meta posted 16 percent revenue growth to $42.3 billion and net income up 35 percent to $16.6 billion, thanks to AI-powered ad tools and campaigns that boosted ad prices and delivery optimization.
Amazon, meanwhile, saw net sales rise 9 percent to $155.7 B, with AWS revenue up 17 percent to $29.3 billion, but faced margin pressure from higher costs and tariff uncertainty.
Amazon’s growth hinges on innovative cloud computing strength, vast logistics scale, and expanding Prime services amid global headwinds.
What Happens Next
Short-term future shifts in billionaire rankings will depend on continued performance of Meta and Amazon stock and global market trends. Developments in artificial intelligence, which Zuckerberg has a huge stake in, may alter the positions of technology sector leaders in the future.
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