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World Billionaires — Mark Zuckerberg — Sergey Brin — Meta — Alphabet

Mark Zuckerberg passes Sergey Brin to become world's fifth richest at $256.8 billion

Four days ago Mark Zuckerberg was sixth, $14.5 billion behind Sergey Brin. He is now fifth. He gained about $3 billion over that stretch. Brin lost roughly $12.7 billion and that, not Meta's rally, is what closed the gap.

,   and  Otobong Tommy
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Mark Zuckerberg passes Sergey Brin to become world's fifth richest at $256.8 billion
Mark Zuckerberg

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Mark Zuckerberg, the American technology billionaire who co-founded Meta, has become the world's fifth-richest person, overtaking Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Zuckerberg's fortune reached $256.8 billion on Wednesday, according to Forbes' real-time tracker, ahead of Brin's $255.4 billion. Meta shares rose 2.1 per cent to more than $750 that afternoon, adding over $4 billion to his wealth.

The change owes more to Brin than to Zuckerberg. On Monday, Zuckerberg sat sixth at $253.6 billion, $14.5 billion behind Brin's $268.1 billion. By Wednesday afternoon Brin was down more than $9 billion on the day alone, as Alphabet fell 3.5 per cent.

Across those two days Zuckerberg added roughly $3 billion. Brin shed roughly $13 billion. The overtake was a decline, not a surge.

Meta's stock has still climbed more than 34 per cent in a month, and the immediate cause is Muse, the consumer AI agent it released about two weeks ago. Muse acts on a user's behalf rather than answering questions — sending emails, making purchases, booking travel and managing schedules.

It has been downloaded 2.8 million times since launch, according to Apptopia data. JPMorgan analysts said this week it could "become the most widely used consumer AI application since ChatGPT." Shares jumped about 11 per cent on Monday on that optimism, adding some $25 billion to Zuckerberg's fortune in a single session.

Zuckerberg still owns roughly 13 per cent of the company he founded as Facebook in 2004 and listed in 2012. Brin remains a controlling shareholder of Alphabet.

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