Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth has increased by $10 billion so far this year. That puts his total at $218 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. It places him behind only Elon Musk ($450 billion) and Jeff Bezos ($242 billion). The gain is also about the same as the total net worth of Victoria Mars, owner of candy company Mars.

Zuckerberg’s increase is due to his ownership of Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META). Its stock is 5% higher this year. Its market cap sits at $1.56 trillion. Zuckerberg owns 13.5% of the company. He also has special voting shares that give him control of Meta. Other shareholders have to go along with his decisions.

Meta’s market cap may be up for several reasons. It has not made any announcements about its most recent earnings, so there is nothing about its financials that has triggered the rise.

Meta did end its fact-checking program a week ago. According to The News York Times, “The social networking giant will stop using third-party fact-checkers on Facebook, Threads and Instagram and instead rely on users to add notes to posts.”

Some outside observers believe that President-elect Donald Trump has viewed this as positive. The benefit is not entirely clear. Does the president care about whether posts are checked, even if they are about him? Zuckerberg is also supporting the inauguration. He will host one of its receptions, and he made a $1 million contribution to underwrite the event.

If Meta’s stock movements are like those of other companies, eventually it will trade on earnings and financial expectations. For now, that cause and effect may have been suspended. This is probably why Zuckerberg’s net worth is higher.

Meta Platforms Stock Price Prediction and Forecast 2025-2030

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