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Zuckerberg Adds $4.5 Billion to Fortune as Facebook Shares Surge

Jump in Facebook’s shares brings Zuckerberg’s year-to-date advance to $24 billion.

Zuckerberg Adds $4.5 Billion to Fortune as Facebook Shares Surge
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive officer of Facebook Inc., smiles during a news conference at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California, U.S. (Photographer: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- After declining about $20 billion in 2018, Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune is bouncing back.

Facebook Inc. shares jumped Thursday in New York trading -- increasing his net worth by about $4.6 billion -- after the social-networking firm reported first-quarter earnings Wednesday night that won near-unanimous praise from Wall Street analysts. That brings his year-to-date advance to $24 billion, the most of anyone on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zuckerberg’s gain tops that of Bernard Arnault, who has seen his fortune increase $23 billion in 2019. Jeff Bezos would have topped both except for the finalization of his divorce from MacKenzie Bezos, which cut his net worth by $36 billion this month and wiped out his 2019 gains.

Facebook shares were up 7.2 percent to $195.78 at 9:55 a.m. and have climbed 49 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Metcalf in London at tmetcalf7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.