Nellius Irene
Meta’s current market capitalization exceeds $1.4 trillion, positioning it among the most valuable companies globally. Following Facebook’s rebrand to Meta in October 2021 and the company’s expansion into metaverse hardware and artificial intelligence, Mark Zuckerberg has become the fourth-wealthiest billionaire, with a net worth of $201 billion.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Zuckerberg’s wealth has increased by $72.6 billion since the start of 2024. Most of Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth comes from his ownership of Meta shares, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Zuckerberg is Meta’s largest individual shareholder, with around 345.5 million shares, according to the company’s proxy statement filed in April. Almost 344 million of his shares are Class B, a sort of Meta stock that gives holders ten votes per share. He owns 99.7% of this class of shares.
Meta’s stock soars over 600% amid the growing buzz around the metaverse
Meta’s stock is trading at around $567 per share, marking a dramatic increase from its November 2022 low of approximately $88 per share—a more than sixfold rise. However, after the initial rebrand, the stock plummeted to those lows from the $300 range, reflecting investor uncertainty about the company’s shift toward augmented reality and AI development.
Since then, several other tech giants, including Apple, Google, Nvidia, and Microsoft, have followed suit and developed their own metaverse hardware.
As of September 2024, Zuckerberg’s wealth places him behind Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and French business magnate Bernard Arnault.
Zuckerberg unveils Orion AR glasses and Quest 3S as Meta pivots to AI
At the Meta Connect event in California on September 25, Zuckerberg unveiled the Orion augmented reality glasses, which feature tiny projectors that create a virtual heads-up display (HUD) over real-world objects. He also introduced the more affordable Quest 3S virtual reality headset, which will replace the previous Quest 3 128 GB model.
Despite the rapid stock growth, Meta reduced its metaverse budget by 20% in July 2024 and instructed Reality Labs, its metaverse division, to cut expenses by 20% by 2026. Since 2019, Reality Labs has lost $60 billion and posted losses in the second quarter of 2024, likely due to its shift towards artificial intelligence.
Zuckerberg has stated that Meta aims to scale its AI business by concentrating efforts and increasing capital investment in AI research. During a July 31 earnings call he noted:
We’ve released the first frontier-level open-source AI model, and we’re seeing solid traction with our Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses.
~Zuckerberg
