A month after achieving the $142 billion net worth, Zuckerberg rolled out Meta and made several AR and VR announcements in 2022.
Mark Zuckerberg has lost about $71 billion in his net worth in 2022 despite shifting focus into the burgeoning metaverse market. Although many are cashing out in the metaverse industry, it seems Zuckerberg’s foray has cost him a chunk of his fortune. This is despite Facebook’s venture into AR and VR products and change of name to Meta, even as the entire tech space in the US is having a challenging year.
Currently, Zuckerberg is ranked 20th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after shedding half of his net worth in 2022. The data shows that he is now worth $55.3 billion. His value places him at his lowest ranking since 2014 and below three Waltons and two Koch family members. It is such a turnaround for Zuckerberg, who joined an elite group of global billionaires less than two years ago. The Facebook executive joined the group, which only had Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, while he was worth $106 billion. His fortune reached a high of $142 billion in September 2021, when his company’s stock spiked to $382. Now, Meta Platforms sank significantly and currently trade around $148.
Zuckerberg Sees $71B Wiped Out from Net Worth in 2022
A month after achieving the $142 billion net worth, Zuckerberg rolled out Meta and made several AR and VR announcements in 2022. However, there have only been negative impacts since the name change. Meta has been declining, and Facebook said in February that it saw no increase in its number of new users. All of these resulted in a fall in the company’s shares and a loss for the CEO. He lost $31 billion at the time, one of the most significant single-day drops in fortune ever.
According to a senior internet analyst at Needham & Co., Laura Martin, Meta’s investments in the metaverse are affecting its stock and Zuckerberg, whose net worth has plunged significantly since the name change. The analysts mentioned that Facebook needs to win back its users from TikTok, which has more than 1 billion users. Also, she believes that Meta is suffering from “excessive regulatory scrutiny and interventions.”
Down nearly 56% since January, Meta is positioned to be the worst performer out of its FAANG peers. Except for Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), which has dropped almost 60% YTD, other FAANG counterparts, Apple, Amazon, and Google, have not shed up to 30% in 2022. At press time, Meta is down 0.89% to $146.71 in pre-market price. The company has plunged 58.59% over the past year and declined 5.75% in the last three months. Meta has also fallen 8.12% and slumped more than 3% in the last five days.
A Bloomberg Intelligence technology analyst Mandeep Singh also commented on the Zuckerberg 2022 net worth decline. He believes that Meta can still avoid the losses by working around its other businesses like Instagram and WhatsApp. The analysts added that the company could have been better if it did not enter the VR space.
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