Mark Zuckerberg is among the top gainers in wealth this year as Meta shares surge on the company's cost-cutting spree
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
- Mark Zuckerberg's net worth is up $11.6 billion this year so far thanks to gains in Meta shares.
- Meta shares are up over 50% this year after surging 20% in after-hours trade on Wednesday.
- Meta shares were boosted by the company's announcement that it will continue to cut costs this year.
Mark Zuckerberg's cost-cutting measures for Meta have borne fruits for investors — and himself — as the company's share price surged 20% after hours on Wednesday.
The after-hours bump adds to Meta stock's winning streak, taking its gains to over 50% this year. This has in turn boosted Zuckerberg's net worth by $11.6 billion this year — taking his fortune to $57.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, where he is in the 21st spot.
The rise in Zuckerberg's fortune is impressive because it put him in the fifth spot in terms of year-to-date gains behind fellow billionaires Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos, and Changpeng Zhao, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Even so, this is a far cry from early 2022, when Zuckerberg started the year with a $125 billion fortune.
The massive slump in Zuckerberg's wealth last year mirrored a massive decline in Meta's share price, which lost about two-thirds of its value in 2022 after Facebook reported a fall in its daily active user numbers for the first time ever amid a massive strategic pivot.
In November, Zuckerberg announced mass layoffs that affected about 13% of its workforce and implemented other cost-cutting measures, like closing offices. On Wednesday, Meta said it will continue to tighten its belts in 2023.
"It's been a rapid phase-change, to take a step back and say, 'Ok, we can't treat everything like it's hyper growth,'" Zuckerberg said on a fourth-quarter earnings call with Wall Street analysts on Wednesday, according to a transcript. "We have a lot of things now that a lot of people use and that support a large amount of business and we should operate somewhat differently."
Meta expects capital expenditures to fall by $4 billion this year, the company said in a press release.
Meta shares closed 2.8% higher at $153.12 on Wednesday before strong gains of 20% in after-hours trade.