On January 29, 2026, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw his personal fortune grow by more than $22 billion in a single day, according to data from Forbes Australia. This massive increase brought his total net worth to $251.7 billion. Because of this jump in wealth, Zuckerberg moved ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the fourth-richest person in the world.
The change in the rankings was caused by a sharp rise in Meta’s stock price. The shares went up by 10.2%, ending the day at $737.52. This happened after the company released its fourth-quarter earnings report, which showed that the business performed much better than financial analysts had originally predicted.
Meta’s financial growth and AI focus
Meta announced quarterly revenue of $59.8 billion, which is a 24% increase from the year before. The company’s earnings per share were $8.88, higher than the $8.21 predicted by experts.These gains happened because Meta showed 22% more ads across its platforms than before, and at the same time increased the average price it charges advertisers by 4%.
The company also shared its spending plans for 2026, saying it expects to spend between $115 billion and $135 billion, mainly to support its operations and invest further in areas like technology and infrastructure. During an earnings call, Zuckerberg said that the company’s AI tools are now at a stage where they are helping the business grow.
Changes in the global wealth rankings
Zuckerberg’s rise came at the same time other tech leaders saw their rankings drop. Microsoft’s stock price fell 11.7% after the company reported slower growth in its cloud business. Because of this, former CEO Steve Ballmer dropped to the 14th spot on the list of the world’s richest people.
According to the latest Forbes data, the current top five rankings are:
Elon Musk: $766.1 Billion
Larry Page: $275.0 Billion
Sergey Brin: $253.7 Billion
Mark Zuckerberg: $251.7 Billion
Jeff Bezos: $249.7 Billion
Elon Musk is still the wealthiest person by a large margin, even though Tesla stock dropped 3.2%. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin moved into the second and third spots after Alphabet’s stock price rose by 6%. This was largely due to the successful launch of their Gemini 3 AI model. Zuckerberg is now less than $2 billion away from moving past Sergey Brin into the third spot. If Meta’s stock continues to perform well, the rankings could change again before the end of the week.
