For 1st time in 4 years, Mark Zuckerberg becomes richer than Elon Musk

For the first time since 2020, Mark Zuckerberg surpassed Elon Musk on Friday becoming the third-richest person in the world.

As recently as early March, Musk was rated first on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. However, after Reuters reported that Tesla Inc. had cancelled plans for a less expensive car, shares slumped and Musk dropped to fourth. Musk refuted the report. This came after reports earlier in the week that Tesla's car sales decreased in the three months ending in March—their first year-over-year decrease since the early stages of the Covid epidemic, NDTV reported.

This year, Musk's worth has decreased by $48.4 billion, while Zuckerberg's wealth has increased by $58.9 billion as Meta Platforms Inc. reaches new heights, setting a record on Friday.

This marks Zuckerberg's first time within the top three on Bloomberg's list of the world's richest people since Nov. 16, 2020, when Musk's wealth was $102.1 billion and his was $105.6 billion. Zuckerberg is worth $186.9 billion, whereas Musk is currently worth $180.6 billion.

With a 34% decline in share price this year, Tesla is the worst performer in the S&P 500 Index. It has been severely impacted by the global decline in demand for EVs, intensifying competition in China, and production issues in Germany. In contrast, Meta has increased 49% as a result of the company's exciting AI developments and solid quarterly profitability. On the S&P 500, it has performed the fifth best.

The competition between the two billionaires goes beyond money: The public dispute between Musk and Zuckerberg has been going on for a while, and it got more intense when Meta introduced Threads, a social media platform that rivals Musk's X. Last year, the two even sparred about the possibility of a cage fight. Reviving the notion on X, Musk, 52, declared he would battle 39-year-old Zuckerberg "anywhere, anytime."

Musk's $55 billion Tesla pay package was overturned by a Delaware judge, which could further reduce his worth. One of Musk's biggest assets is his pay package of options, which the Bloomberg Billionaires Index still uses to determine how wealthy he is.

At $223.4 billion and $207.3 billion, respectively, the richest men in Bloomberg's wealth ranking are Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the luxury conglomerate and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com Inc.