Mark Zuckerberg's initial bet on the metaverse seemed like a colossal mistake, wiping out more than $100 billion from his net worth. However, that bet is now paying off handsomely, as Meta Platforms' record-high stock price has nearly sextupled Zuckerberg's wealth to $201 billion in less than two years.According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zuckerberg's fortune has exceeded $200 billion for the first time, placing him fourth among the world's richest people. The founder of Meta now trails only Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault.This year, other tech giants' leaders have also significantly increased their fortunes. For instance, Nvidia's founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, more than doubled his net worth to $106.2 billion. However, neither Huang nor anyone else has matched Zuckerberg's success. Since January 1, his fortune has risen by $73.4 billion, thanks to his 13% stake in Meta. Last week, the social media giant’s stock hit an all-time high, with a 60% increase over the year.
The situation has drastically changed since 2022, when, after renaming Facebook to Meta and making large investments in building the metaverse, the company’s stock plummeted, and Zuckerberg's wealth took a sharp decline. At the time, Meta was struggling to find its place in the short-video market, competing with TikTok. Now, analysts say the shift from Facebook to Meta is finally becoming a reality as the company focuses on its Orion augmented reality glasses.“Thanks to a combination of hardware improvements by Meta over the past five years and advances in AI, Orion represents the evolution of Meta from a social networking company to a metaverse company,” said JMP Securities analysts.Since 2022, Meta has laid off tens of thousands of employees, reducing its global workforce by 25%. Additionally, steps have been taken to boost the company’s stock performance, including a $50 billion share buyback program and Meta’s first-ever quarterly dividend. Furthermore, Meta aims to be a leader in artificial intelligence, pouring significant resources into new data centers and expanding computing capacity.
