Zuckerberg Tops Buffett As World’s Third Richest Man

For the first time in history, the three wealthiest people on the planet made their fortunes from technology.

As Bloomberg reports that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has overtaken Warren Buffett as the world’s third-richest person.

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.

And all it took was the biggest short squeeze in US market history, sparking a buying frenzy in the mega-tech ‘Most Shorted’ names to send Zuckerberg’s Facebook shares up over 15% YTD (yes, despite all the security ‘issues’, surveillance ‘apologies’, Russian ‘interference’, and data ‘selling’) – massively outperforming Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway…

This has enabled Zuckerberg to add almost $9 billion to his net worth this year (and even more notably – added almost $20 billion since his appearance in Congress) as Buffett has lost over $4 billion.

Buffett, once the world’s wealthiest person, is also sliding in the ranking thanks to his charitable giving, which he kicked off in earnest in 2006.

At 34, Zuckerberg is also the youngest person in the world’s richest top ten.