Michael Dell overtakes Mark Zuckerberg as world’s fifth-richest person

Michael Dell’s fortune increased by $4.3 billion on Monday, allowing the technology entrepreneur to overtake Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and reclaim his position as the world’s fifth-richest person, according to Forbes.

Dell’s net worth stood at approximately $241.3 billion as of 1.15pm, after shares in Dell Technologies climbed 2% amid a recovery in technology stocks following last week’s market downturn.

Shares in chipmaker Broadcom, in which Dell also holds a significant stake, rose about 2.4% during Monday’s trading session, further boosting his wealth.

Meanwhile, Meta shares fell around 1.1%, reducing Zuckerberg’s net worth to approximately $240.7 billion and placing him just behind Dell in the global wealth rankings.

Dell has seen his fortune surge this year as demand for servers used in artificial intelligence data centres has driven up shares in the company he founded in the 1980s.

He was worth $141 billion when Forbes published its annual Forbes 400 list earlier this year, meaning his wealth has increased by more than $100 billion in the intervening months.

Dell briefly rose to become the world’s second-richest person in September before his fortune declined in recent weeks amid broader market concerns about heavy spending by artificial intelligence companies.

Investors are now closely watching Meta’s third-quarter earnings report, scheduled for Wednesday, for further indications of how its AI investments are affecting the company’s financial performance.

Meta shares came under pressure in July after its second-quarter results revealed a significant decline in cash flow linked to AI-related expenditure.

However, the company launched a major AI assistant tool in September, which attracted millions of downloads in the following weeks and recorded faster early growth than rival chatbots, including ChatGPT and Claude.