Mark Zuckerberg Passes Jeff Bezos To Become World's Fifth Richest Person

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has risen in the ranks of the world's wealthiest people in the past week, passing not just one but two tech titans to claim his highest ranking yet as the world's fifth richest person.

On Tuesday Feb. 2, Zuckerberg passed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to become the fifth richest person in the world, less than a week after he took the sixth richest spot from  Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison.

Zuckerberg is worth $50 billion, Forbes estimates, as of Tuesday's close. That puts him a mere $200 million behind the fourth richest person in the world, Mexico's Carlos Slim Helu. Zuckerberg's net worth has soared by $8.6 billion since Facebook's stellar fourth quarter earnings report on January 27, 2016; Facebook stock is up more than 21% since then. 

Bezos' week has looked a little less rosy.  On Thursday, January 28, Bezos lost more than $6 billion in after-hours trading as Amazon stock dropped after the company missed analyst expectations in its fourth quarter earnings report. Amazon stock has continued to fall since then and is down more than 13% since the January 28 close.

At the end of the day Monday, February 1, Bezos was holding onto his spot as the world's fifth richest with a narrow $600 million lead over Zuckerberg. But on Tuesday, Bezos' net worth dropped nearly $2 billion as Amazon stock fell 4%, which was enough to put Zuckerberg more than $1 billion ahead of Bezos. The Amazon CEO is worth $48.9 billion, as of Tuesday's close.

Bezos first appeared on Forbes' ranking of The 400 Richest Americans in 1998 with a net worth of $1.6 billion. Ten years later, Zuckerberg joined The Forbes 400 with a net worth of $1.5 billion.