On September 10, 2021, Facebook’s stock price closed at an all-time high of $378 per share. At that price, Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth was $140 billion. That made him the fifth-richest person on the planet behind Bill Gates ($150 billion), Bernard Arnault ($168 billion), Jeff Bezos ($184 billion) and Elon Musk ($204 billion).
Exactly two months later to the day, November 10, Facebook announced it was renaming itself “Meta,” a nod to the much-hyped (and arguably pointless) “metaverse,” which for some reason Mark Zuckerberg believes is the next big thing.
When the company made that name announcement on November 10, the stock price was a bit lower but still a very respectable $340 per share, giving Mark a still very respectable $127 billion net worth, which was still enough to maintain his rank as the world’s fifth richest person. At the same time, the goal posts had moved dramatically in the upper echelons of rankings of the world’s richest people. On November 4, Elon Musk’s net worth briefly topped $340 billion when Tesla’s stock price hit an all-time high. That was enough to allow Elon to dethrone John. D Rockefeller as the richest human in modern history. Bill Gates was worth around $135 billion in mid-November. Bernard Arnault was worth around $175 billion. Bezos was worth $200 billion.
Fast forward to the present.
As I type this article, Facebook’s stock price is $99. That’s 70% loss in value compared to a year ago.
70%
As you might imagine, a 70% drop in the value of Facebook’s stock price has had a brutal impact on Mark Zuckerberg’s personal fortune.
At $99 a share, Mark Zuckerberg is no longer one of the five richest people in the world. He’s not in the top 10. Or the top 20. Or the top 30. By our count, Mark’s current $36 billion net worth ranks him at…
#33
(SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Out of all the billionaires on the world, none have lost more money in 2022 than Mark Zuckerberg. Year-to-date (as in, since January 1), Mark’s fortunes have tumbled nearly $90 billion.
When comparing to his all-time high $140 billion from September 2021, a full $104 billion has been shaved off. Let me repeat that. Between September 10, 2021 and today, Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth has dropped by…
$104 billion
The obvious question now is whether this is the end of the drop or is there more room for Mark to tumble.
Mark is betting the farm on the metaverse and does not appear to have any intention of changing course. In the meantime he’s burning billions and billions of dollars trying to make the metaverse a (virtual) reality.
As someone who owns a few shares of Facebook stock that were bought BEFORE the 70% drop… personally, I would sure love it if Mark abandoned the metaverse and got back to what Facebook is good at:
Selling intimate personal information to advertisers while simultaneously ruining democracy and society in general!