Mark Zuckerberg overtook Sergey Brin to become the fifth-wealthiest person in the world on Wednesday, after a jump in Meta’s stock price likely tied to hype for the company’s new Muse AI agent boosted his fortune by more than $4 billion Wednesday alone.
Zuckerberg’s net worth reached $256.8 billion on Wednesday, boosting him ahead of Google co-founder Brin’s net worth of $255.4 billion, which was down more than $9 billion as of Wednesday afternoon as Google parent Alphabet’s stock declined 3.5%.
Meta’s stock, meanwhile, was up 2.1% to more than $750 a share as of 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday.
Zuckerberg’s fortune is largely tied to Meta, the company he co-founded as Facebook in 2004, took public in 2012 and still owns a roughly 13% stake in, while Brin remains a controlling shareholder of Alphabet.
Meta’s stock has been surging since Monday, likely tied to investor optimism about the recent release of Muse, the company’s consumer-facing new AI personal agent it says can handle tasks like sending emails, make purchases and plan schedules.
Earlier this week, JPMorgan analysts predicted Muse could “become the most widely used consumer AI application since ChatGPT,” Reuters reported on Tuesday.
