The stock market rout of 2022 has reduced the personal worth of plenty of tech billionaires, but none more than Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The founder

Mark Zuckerberg's net worth has dropped $71 billion this year

submited by

Style Pass

2022-09-21 23:00:22

The stock market rout of 2022 has reduced the personal worth of plenty of tech billionaires, but none more than Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The founder of the company formerly known as Facebook, Zuckerberg has seen his net worth plummet by nearly $71 billion this year, according to calculations by Bloomberg. Zuckerberg, now 38, has slipped from No. 3 on the Forbes billionaires list last year to No. 22 today.

Blame the drop on the dizzying fall of Meta's stock, which holds the bulk of Zuckerberg's fortune. While the financial markets' tumble this year has deflated several tech billionaires' fortune by roughly a quarter, no one, not even crypto CEO Changpeng Zhao, has seen a wipeout on the scale of Zuckerberg.

Since Facebook became Meta nearly a year ago, its stock has lost about 60% of its value, taking Zuckerberg's worth down with it.

The company's pivot to the Metaverse underscores the trouble with its traditional business model, which relies on selling massive amounts of advertising against very specific user data. Apple iOS 14 changes last year that made tracking harder for advertisers took a big bite out of Meta's earning power.