Featured Image Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris / Staff via Getty
A dramatic drop in Meta's stock market valuation has seen $29 billion struck from Mark Zuckerberg's net worth, and it's all thanks to two words that were uttered among the company's plans for the next year.
While he's never quite managed to claim the top spot, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has remained among the richest people in the world for a long while now, and his fortune only seems to be growing with Meta's increased focus on artificial intelligence development.
Zuckerberg has never been shy of spending money though, and many have criticized his antics over the years as a waste — particularly when it came to the billions of dollars invested into the Metaverse, which has never taken off as a concept.
One of the company's biggest goals is to be the defining name in the next big technology, which is also why it has gone in so much on smart wearables like the new Meta Ray-Ban collaboration glasses, yet that has seemingly hurt them in the short term.
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As reported by the Times of India, two words have caused Meta's stock price to plummet in the last week, as the company announced 'notably larger' capital expenses in the next year as a result of continued investment in AI.
That could very well result in significant revenue increases in the near future, as that money is being spent on numerous data centers including one Zuckerberg himself describes as a 'mammoth', but investors are seemingly fed up of the company's continued spending, and have taken action.
Last Wednesday, October 29, Meta's stock market price dropped from $756.13 to as low as $637.14 almost immediately after the company's spending announcement, with the prices continuing to tumble further in the following days.
As a result, Zuckerberg has dropped several places on the world's richest list, falling down to fifth place with a current net worth of 'just' $229 billion according to Bloomberg, despite this being over $260 billion before the announcement was made.
This is all due to Zuckerberg's jaw-dropping wealth being tied up predominantly in Meta equity, of which he owns around 13.6% of the company, and therefore is hit hard by any drops — especially ones as big as this.
Much like everything in the world of stocks though this could climb back up almost as quickly as it has fallen, as all it takes is some good news for people to reinvest once more.
Zuckerberg himself will surely be alright too despite losing billions of dollars, as he still has more money than most of the world combined to fall back on.
