Zuckerberg $8.5b richer in a day - now 6th-wealthiest man

Mr Zuckerberg saw his fortune rise by US$6 billion (S$8.5 billion) in one day, and he now has a net worth of US$47.5 billion.
Mr Zuckerberg saw his fortune rise by US$6 billion (S$8.5 billion) in one day, and he now has a net worth of US$47.5 billion.

SAN FRANCISCO • Mr Mark Zuckerberg has become the sixth-richest person on earth.

The Facebook founder saw his fortune rise by US$6 billion (S$8.5 billion) in trading on Thursday after the world's biggest social network delivered another quarter of record revenue.

That gives the 31-year-old a net worth of US$47.5 billion, enough to surpass the US$45.9 billion holdings of brothers Charles and David Koch, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Facebook reported on Wednesday that fourth-quarter sales were up 52 per cent to US$5.84 billion and net income had more than doubled to US$1.56 billion from a year earlier. More than 1.59 billion users are now logging on every month, according to the company.

Thursday's surge turned a year-to-date decline of more than US$4 billion for Mr Zuckerberg into a US$1.7 billion gain for the year and pushed him above the Kochs, whose industrial holdings have been hit by lower oil prices.

The five billionaires that remain above the tech entrepreneur in the ranking - Bill Gates, Amancio Ortega, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Carlos Slim - have lost a combined US$19 billion so far this month as equities across the world slumped amid dimming investor expectations of global growth.

Mr Zuckerberg is one of only seven billionaires among the 100 richest people on earth to see an increase this year, according to the Bloomberg index, a daily ranking of the world's 400 richest people.

The billionaires have a combined net worth of US$3.7 trillion, a 14 per cent decline from their peak of US$4.3 trillion on May 18 last year.

BLOOMBERG

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on January 30, 2016, with the headline Zuckerberg $8.5b richer in a day - now 6th-wealthiest man. Subscribe