Mark Zuckerberg Becomes World’s 4th Richest Man Outperforms Bill Gates

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc. is currently the fourth richest person in the world. The Facebook founder”s worth is estimated $170.5 billion outperforming Bill Gates on the on Bloomberg Index. His wealth escalated by $28.1 billion following Meta”s quarterly results jumping its shares up about 20%.

This constitutes a big bounce back for Mark Zuckerberg“s net worth, which, as a result of tech stocks collapse in late 2022 against inflation and interest rate hikes, has fallen to $35 billion. It began to surge back in 2023.

The upbeat results will benefit Zuckerberg in other ways, too: He stands to receive a payout of about $700 million a year from the social media giant”s first-ever dividend for investors, Bloomberg reports.

The company”s plan to pay a dividend reflect a sign about the Meta“s view of its growth potential. Most often, faster-growing tech companies give up dividends in favour of using earnings to advance new products or make expensive acquisitions.

Meta”s stock almost tripled in 2023, after company laid off around 21,000 people and limited its priorities. The new dividend and an additional $50 billion in share buybacks, Bloomberg adds, may win more patience from investors with Zuckerberg”s long-term bets on artificial intelligence and the metaverse.

According to filings, Facebook founder took home $27.1 million in total compensation in 2022, including private security costs and a base salary of $1. However, Meta hasn’t yet reported executive compensation for last year, Bloomberg reports.

In 2008, just four years after the formation of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg became a billionaire for the first time. Besides, at the age of 23, he was the youngest self-made billionaire at the time.