Initially, Mark Zuckerberg’s bet on the metaverse looked like a colossal mistake that removed more than $100 billion from the businessman’s estimated net worth. Now it’s paying off in spades, as Meta✴ Platforms’ record high share price has nearly six-folded Zuckerberg’s fortune to $201 billion in less than two years.
Mark Zuckerberg / Image source: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zuckerberg’s fortune exceeded $200 billion for the first time, thanks to which he rose to fourth place in the ranking of the richest people in the world. Currently, the founder of Meta✴ is second only to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault.
This year, a number of other tech giants managed to significantly increase their wealth. For example, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang more than doubled his fortune to $106.2 billion. However, neither Huang nor anyone else has achieved the same success as Zuckerberg. Since January 1, his fortune has grown by $73.4 billion thanks to his 13 percent stake in Meta✴. In the middle of last week, the price of the social networking giant’s securities reached an all-time high, and in total they have risen in price by 60% over the year.
Meta✴ stock price chart / Image source: Bloomberg
The situation has changed dramatically since in 2022, after renaming Facebook✴ to Meta✴ and investing heavily in creating the metaverse, the company’s shares lost value and Zuckerberg’s fortune plummeted. Then Meta✴ tried to find its place in the short video segment, trying to compete with TikTok. Now, analysts say the move away from Facebook✴ and towards Meta✴ is finally becoming a reality as the company is betting on Orion augmented reality glasses.
«With a combination of Meta✴ hardware improvements over the past five years and advances in artificial intelligence, Orion represents the evolution of Meta✴ from a social media company to a metaverse company,” according to analysts at JMP Securities.
Since 2022, Meta✴ has laid off tens of thousands of employees, reducing its global workforce by 25%. In addition, steps were taken to improve the company’s stock performance, including a $50 billion share repurchase program and Meta✴’s first-ever quarterly dividend. In addition, Meta✴ aims to become one of the leaders in the field of artificial intelligence, spending heavily on new data centers and increasing computing power.
Zuckerberg’s own public image has also changed dramatically from two years ago. He moved away from his tech nerd image and took up a variety of sports, including mixed martial arts and wakesurfing. Zuckerberg also said he intends to stay out of politics, despite his early statements on social justice, inequality and migration issues.