Sergey Brin Rises To 3rd Richest—Despite Google Stock Plunge

A modest increase in the net worth of Google co-founder Sergey Brin Friday put him back on top of Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell as the third richest person in the world after a massive slump in Alphabet stock Wednesday knocked him into fifth place.Key factsBrin’s net worth plummeted more than $17 million on Thursday after Alphabet’s share price dropped more than 7%—erasing roughly $255 billion in market value in the largest one-day valuation loss in the company’s history.The drop briefly put Brin in fifth place on Forbes’ real-time billionaires list behind Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell, but a modest .5% increase in his net worth Friday was enough to put him back in third.Brin’s net worth was an estimated $243.1 billion as of 11 a.m. ET Friday.Big number362.7 million. That’s how many shares, or about 3% of the company, Brin owns in Alphabet.What to watch forAlphabet reported its 12th straight quarter of double-digit revenue growth Wednesday, but investors were spooked by a spike in its artificial intelligence capital spending forecast to be between $195 billion and $205 billion.Key backgroundTiny moves in stock like Alphabet or Dell can swap two people on the Forbes real-time billionaire ranking whose fortunes are only a few billion dollars apart. The biggest driver is the real-time market value of shares a billionaire owns in public companies. As stocks rise and fall throughout the day, Forbes automatically recalculates their wealth. Forbes also estimates the value of private companies using comparable public companies and other assets, like real estate, cash, investments, yachts and art.