With a fortune of 206 billion dollars, the CEO of Meta has become the second richest person on the planet, surpassing Jeff Bezos for the first time. A look back at two years of recovery for Mark Zuckerberg, who had sunk in 2022.
And here comes Mark Zuckerberg again. The CEO of Meta, who was thought to be finished less than two years ago, and whose personal fortune had melted by 75% during 2022, is now taking center stage again. According to the Bloomberg index, the fortune of the Facebook creator, who holds a 13% stake in the parent company Meta, has become the second richest man in the world this week.
His fortune is estimated this Friday at 206 billion dollars, a level never reached before by Mark Zuckerberg. He surpasses Jeff Bezos (205 billion dollars) and the Frenchman Bernard Arnault (193 billion dollars) for the first time. Only SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk is better off than him with a fortune of 256 billion.
But since the beginning of the year, the rocket of billionaires has indeed been 'Zuck'. In 2024, the fortune of Meta's CEO jumped by more than 78 billion dollars, a record in the Bloomberg ranking. Over the year, he has added nearly 100 billion dollars to his fortune (97 billion precisely).
From the depths in 2022...
How did the little prince of Silicon Valley manage to escape the negative spiral that threatened to engulf his group after Covid? To recall, between 2021 and the end of 2022, dark clouds were gathering in Meta's sky. From Apple's decision to limit data collection for advertising purposes to the decline in its user base, through the very costly misadventures of the Metaverse and the controversies surrounding the new WhatsApp data usage policy... Nothing seemed to work on the Menlo Park side, at Meta's headquarters.
Throughout 2022, it took courage to buy Meta shares. The stock price kept plummeting, reaching a low of 90 dollars in November of that year, a drop of 76% in just over a year. The valuation of Zuckerberg's stake was then only 35 billion dollars.
… to "the year of efficiency" of 2023
But as the 20th anniversary of Facebook's creation (celebrated in February 2024) approaches, Mark Zuckerberg wanted to return to the essentials. Internally dubbed the 'year of efficiency', 2023 marked Meta's return to the forefront. The billionaire did not hesitate to make tough decisions: 21,000 employees laid off, or a quarter of the workforce, a streamlining of costs at all levels to limit the damage of the Metaverse, which remains a financial black hole to this day.
A major spring cleaning that allowed the group to return to profitability. Meta tripled its earnings in 2023 and has regularly announced quarterly profits exceeding analysts' expectations since then. More than the level of profitability, it is the return of revenue growth that has excited the stock market for a year. In July, Meta announced a quarterly revenue increase of 22% (39 billion dollars). For the fourth consecutive time, Meta's quarterly sales rose by more than 20%. Unprecedented for a mature company.
It is thanks to generative AI that the group has become the brightest star in Silicon Valley again. Initially, benefiting like all companies in the sector from investors' enthusiasm for tech stocks. Then, secondly, by heavily investing in its own generative AI tools to enhance its advertising space sales.
Dependence on China
"I think the benefits are numerous as it improves recommendations and helps people find better content, as well as making advertising experiences more effective," explained Mark Zuckerberg in July during the earnings conference call.
"These are already large-scale products. The AI work we are doing will improve that."
While generative AI boosts Meta's revenues (and the fortune of its CEO), the group is increasingly dependent on two major advertisers: Temu and Shein. The two Chinese retailers, in the process of conquering Western markets, mainly in the United States, spend a combined 800 million dollars per quarter on Facebook and Instagram ads, according to JMP Securities. Advertisers based in China now account for 10% of Meta's annual revenue.
Advertising expenditures that, according to analysts, will not be sustainable in the long term. While Meta and Zuckerberg have returned to prominence, the clouds have not disappeared far.
