Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks about Facebook news features at the Paley Center for Media on October 25, 2019 in New York.
Drew Angler | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth plunges $18 billion on Thursday Yuan The company’s CEO’s speech on the earnings call sent its shares into their biggest drop since October 2022.
Meta beat revenue and profit estimates, but revenue forecasts came in below expectations. Zuckerberg told investors that while 98% of Meta’s revenue comes from advertising, the company will continue to spend billions investing in areas such as artificial intelligence and the Metaverse.
“At this stage of our product strategy, our stock has historically experienced a lot of volatility and we are investing in scaling new products but not yet monetizing them,” Zuckerberg said on the call.
Zuckerberg owns about 345 million Class A and Class B shares. With the stock down $52.12 on Thursday, the value of his stake fell by about $18 billion to $152 billion by the end of trading.
The 39-year-old programmer founded the company in his Harvard dorm room in 2004 and renamed it from Facebook to Meta in 2021, signaling to investors that he planned to focus on the non-existent virtual universe.
Meta’s Reality Labs unit, which develops hardware and software for virtual worlds, has suffered a cumulative loss of $45 billion since the company first split the unit in its financial statements in 2020.
Meta said it plans to spend $35 billion to $40 billion in capital expenditures this year, an increase from previous forecasts.
Zuckerberg’s fortune has fluctuated over the years as his company’s stock has been particularly volatile. In 2022, his net worth was reduced by approximately $100 billion.
Thursday wasn’t the worst day for Zuckerberg’s bank account. In early 2022, his company’s stock price plummeted 26% on weak profits and disappointing guidance, losing nearly $30 billion in one day.
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