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Mark Zuckerberg Vaults to No. 5 in the Ranking of World’s Richest

Shares of Menlo Park, California-based Facebook surged 11 percent to $166.69, the biggest one-day gain in three years.

Mark Zuckerberg Vaults to No. 5 in the Ranking of World’s Richest
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., arrives to testify, following a break, before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees in Washington. (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Mark Zuckerberg added $6.2 billion to his net worth Thursday, jumping two places to No. 5 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after his Facebook Inc. posted revenue that beat Wall Street estimates, sending its shares soaring.

Zuckerberg, Facebook’s 34-year-old co-founder, vaulted over Amancio Ortega of Spain and Mexico’s Carlos Slim, who are now ranked sixth and seventh, respectively, on the list of the world’s 500 richest people. Shares of Menlo Park, California-based Facebook surged 11 percent to $166.69, the biggest one-day gain in three years, boosting Zuckerberg’s fortune to $65.6 billion.

Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos added $3.8 billion on the day and remains the planet’s wealthiest person with a $142.1 billion fortune, ahead of No. 2 Bill Gates, with $95.8 billion. Bezos overtook the Microsoft Corp. co-founder for the top spot 15 months ago.

Only four of the 174 Americans on the Bloomberg ranking saw their fortunes decline in January as U.S. markets rallied from a late-December slump. The S&P 500 Index surged 7.9 percent for the month, its best in more than three years. The world’s 500 richest people added a total of $308 billion to their wealth in January as global markets also gained.

--With assistance from Jack Witzig and Reade Pickert.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Stupples in London at bstupples@bloomberg.net;Devon Pendleton in New York at dpendleton@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Peter Eichenbaum, David Scheer

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