Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth also fell by more than $18 billion as Meta shares continued to fall on April 25. However, the Facebook boss still retained his position as the world’s fourth richest person.
Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth “evaporated” by more than $18 billion after Meta shares fell the most since October 2022. According to CNBC, Meta shares closed down 11% on April 25 as investors reacted to Zuckerberg’s comments during the first-quarter business results conference call.
Although Meta’s revenue and profit were both higher than expected, the company provided weaker-than-expected revenue. Zuckerberg said Meta will continue to invest billions of dollars in areas such as AI and virtual space, even though 98% of its revenue still comes from advertising.
Meta CEO himself seemed to anticipate the investor reaction, saying: “Historically, our stock has been very volatile during this period, when we invest to scale new products but don’t make money from them.”
Zuckerberg owns about 345 million Class A and Class B shares. When Meta’s stock price fell to $52.12 on April 25, his stock value fell about $18 billion, to $152 billion.
The 39-year-old programmer founded Facebook in his Harvard dorm room in 2004. In 2021, he renamed Facebook to Meta to signal his plans to focus on virtual universes instead of social networking. Reality Labs, which develops hardware and software for the metaverse, has accumulated losses of $45 billion since 2020. Meta plans to spend $35 billion to $40 billion on capital expenditures this year.
The Facebook CEO’s fortune has fluctuated over the years, in line with Meta’s stock. In 2022, Zuckerberg saw his net worth drop by about $100 billion. In early 2023, he announced that the company would pursue a “year of efficiency,” a move that tripled the stock price in the year and boosted his net worth.
Although he lost $18 billion on April 25, it was not Zuckerberg’s worst day, according to CNBC. In early 2022, he lost nearly $30 billion in a single day when the stock fell 26% due to a weak business report and disappointing revenue forecast.
With a net worth of about $152 billion, Zuckerberg is still the fourth richest person in the world, according to Forbes’ billionaires list.
He is only “poorer” than three people on the planet: LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
