Mark Zuckerberg lost $70Bn in net worth

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth has plunged by $70 billion so far this year, dropping him down to 20th richest person in the world. Zuckerberg started the year with a $125 billion fortune but slipped down to $55.3 billion, facing a fall of just over 55%.

Forbes puts his net worth at $53.4 billion. Facebook reported its first-ever decline in user numbers, losing nearly one million daily active users in the last quarter of 2021. Meta’s net income fell 36% in the second quarter from the same period in 2021.

In April, the company said that it had spent around $10 billion on metaverse investments in 2021, or roughly 50% of its capital expenditure. Meta said that as of April there were over 10,000 people working on its metaverse projects.

During the company's annual shareholder meeting in May, Zuckerberg said, “The metaverse business for us isn't really going to be a meaningful contributor to the business until at a minimum much later in this decade, and probably realistically this decade is going to be about setting the foundation for that and then the 2030s are really where this is going to contribute a lot to the profits of this company.”