Zuckerberg joins exclusive club with just two other members: Musk and Bezos

It’s one thing to be a billionaire. Only 2,781 members of the world population, which is approaching 8 billion people, have achieved this status. And even fewer people have a multibillion-dollar net worth, with a select few reaching the coveted $100 billion position.

But now there’s an even more illustrious club: the $200 billion club. And only three of technology’s biggest leaders have reached this level: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and now Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg, however, hasn’t just joined the $200 billion club — he’s also the biggest earner on the list, amassing tens of billions of dollars in wealth this year alone.

Zuckerberg’s wealth increased by a whopping $72.2 billion in 2024, according to , bringing his total net worth to $200 billion. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had the second biggest increase in net worth this year, earning $58 billion. Despite the growth, Musk has the highest net worth, with $265 billion to his name, followed by Bezos with $216 billion.

That puts Zuckerberg ahead of other top tech executives, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and former Microsoft CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

“I define our strategy as: If we can learn faster than any other company, we will win,” Zuckerberg said during a podcast recording last week. “We are going to build a better product than everyone else because we are going to launch it first or early. You learn faster.”

Although Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook 20 years ago, only receives a $1 salary, he makes up for it with “other compensation” and his huge stake in Meta. He is the largest shareholder in Facebook’s parent company, owning about 345.5 million shares, according to Meta’s April proxy statement. Additionally, he received $24.4 million in “other compensation” this year. Much of this additional compensation goes to protecting Zuckerberg, as with other high-profile CEOs.

“We believe that Mr. Zuckerberg’s role puts him in a unique position: he is synonymous with Meta and, as a result, negative sentiment toward our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr. Zuckerberg” , wrote Meta in the document to the SEC.

Meta did not respond to Meta’s request for comment on Zuckerberg’s net worth.

Zuckerberg’s drive for “efficiency”

Meta, which owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, has performed well this year. Since the start of 2024, Meta shares are up an impressive 60%, and an even more impressive 85% year over year.

Zuckerberg credits the company’s focus on AI for Meta’s strong performance this year.

“Meta AI is on track to become the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year,” Zuckerberg said in a July earnings release. In fact, revenue increased 22% to $39.07 billion from $32 billion in the second quarter.

While AI has benefited the company, Zuckerberg’s “Year of Efficiency” at Meta has been a challenge for many of his other workers and for some of his biggest projects, including augmented reality. This cost-cutting initiative began in February 2023 and resulted in mass layoffs at the tech giant.

“This decision is part of our broader efforts to prioritize products that we believe will best meet the future needs of our consumers and business customers,” Meta said in a statement.