Move over Buffet! Zuckerberg is here!!…. Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has officially overtaken Warren Buffett as the world’s third-richest person, placing technology on a pedestal as the most robust creator of wealth.
Zuckerberg, who trails behind Jeff Bezos; founder of Amazon and Bill Gates, Microsoft Corporation co-founder shot past Buffet on Friday as Facebook shares climbed 2.4 percent, as reported by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The significance of this remains the fact that for the first time in the history of the World, the three wealthiest people on the ranking made their fortunes from technology. Zuckerberg, 34, is now worth $81.6 billion, about $373 million more than Buffett, the 87-year-old chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
The rise of Zuckerberg has largely been driven by investors’ continued embrace of Facebook, the social-network giant that shook off the fallout from a data-privacy crisis that sent its shares tumbling, sending them to an eight-month low of $152.22 on March 27. The stock closed Friday at a record $203.23.
Fortunes from Tech. make up about a fifth of the more than $5 trillion in wealth tracked by the Bloomberg index, more than any other sector.
The Bloomberg Index ranking is updated at the end of every trading day with latest wealth acquisitions of 500 people across the world.
Buffett has been is sliding in the ranking thanks to his charitable giving, after having once been the world’s richest ahead of Bill Gates. Starting in 2006, he has already donated about 290 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to charities, most of it to the Gates and Melinda foundation. Those shares are now worth more than $50 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Zuckerberg himself has however pledged to give away 99 percent of his Facebook stock in his lifetime.
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