Mark Zuckerberg Becomes the Third-richest Person Alive

The Facebook CEO jumped ahead on Friday with a net worth of $81.6 billion, according to calculations by Bloomberg. That put him about $373 million in front of Buffett, the legendary investor and Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) CEO.

Zuckerberg claimed the No. 3 spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index because Facebook (FB) shares rose 2.4%. The stock has spiked about 15% this year.

For the first time, the three richest people alive are all tech titans. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, worth about $141 billion, is first, followed by Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates, according to the Bloomberg index.

Lindsey Bell, an investment strategist with CFRA Research, said last month that she expects tech stocks to help lead the market higher over the next year.

Buffett is betting on tech, too. Berkshire Hathaway bought about 75 million shares of Apple stock during the first three months of the year, adding to the 165 million shares it already had.

He was relatively late to tech. Buffett didn’t report his first purchase of Apple shares until two years ago. Now Apple is one of Berkshire’s largest holdings.

Buffett gives billions of dollars to charity every year. Zuckerberg has pledged to give away 99% of his Facebook shares.

Source; CNN