At a recent conference, former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos stated that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has “more data about what people want to do online than anyone else in the world.”

CNBC reports that speaking at the Washington Post’s technology and policy conference on Wednesday, former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos explained how Mark Zuckerberg manages to make decisions and business moves that eventually prove profitable but seem like huge gambles initially. According to Stamos, Zuckerberg can do this as he can almost see into the future because the CEO is “sitting on more data about what people want to do online than anyone else in the world.”

Stamos cited the acquisitions of messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion and photo-sharing service Instagram for $1 billion as examples of Zuckerberg’s ability to predict the next most popular platforms. Stamos stated that at the time of purchase, these were seen as moves “that people think are insane but turn out to be prophetic because he knows the direction the world is going.”

Stamos is correct that WhatsApp and Instagram have worked very well for Facebook, with Instagram boasting 1 billion active users per month and WhatsApp drawing 1.5 billion users per month. Stamos stated that more Silicon Valley companies need to work together in order to meet shared goals: “People at Morgan Stanley and Goldman (Sachs) hate each other but they understand their boats rise at the same time,” said Stamos. “In the Valley, you have personality driven conflict…and if CEO’s (in tech) snipe at others in keynotes…it’s unlikely for them to work well.”

Stamos added that as issues such as content moderation, regulation of political ads, and cybersecurity become hot topics amongst Washington, Silicon Valley companies will have to work together to deal with them.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com