With a fortune of $141 billion, Mark Zuckerberg is currently the fifth richest in the world and the fourth richest if only technology CEOs are counted.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, this result is thanks to Meta’s CEO’s comeback in 2023, when he determined to cut staff and optimize spending, aiming for an “effective year” at Meta. The company also flourished and reached the trillion USD capitalization milestone.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: AP

In September 2022, Zuckerberg was kicked off the list of the 10 richest people in the world after the company that owns Facebook decided to pursue its ambition of the virtual universe metaverse but failed, leading to losses of tens of billions of dollars. Zuckerberg’s wealth dropped by more than a hundred billion dollars, from $142 billion in 2021 to just $38.1 billion a year later.

After this time, the Meta boss decided to do something different. According to Forbes, he did not give half-hearted apologies like before. Instead, he changed direction. The first is to lay off more than 21,000 employees at the end of 2022 and early 2023.

In recent months, Zuckerberg has focused on AI, announcing the purchase of more than 350,000 graphics cards, equivalent to tens of billions of dollars, to build a large language model training system. He affirmed that he still pursues the metaverse, but tweaks it to make things more trendy by integrating more AI.

The changes of Meta boss after 2022 were positively received by investors. On the stock market, the company’s capitalization currently reaches 1,000 billion USD, just below the level of 1,100 billion USD in September 2021. Company shares also increased 200% over the same period last year. “Shareholders are optimistic as Meta seeks to solidify its position as a powerful pioneer in artificial intelligence,” CNBC commented.

Meta plans to report its fourth quarter 2023 financial report on February 1.