Facebook’s parent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has returned into the list of top four richest men in the world. On Friday, Zuckerberg saw his wealth surge to $169 billion after Meta shares soared over 20 percent.
Mark Zuckerberg surpasses Bill Gates
Zuckerberg surpassed Bill Gates to rose to the fourth spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is sitting at number one position with a fortune of over USD 205 billion, followed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (USD 197 billion) at second spot and LMV’s Bernard Arnault (USD 185 billion) at number three position.
Zuckerberg’s wealth fell below USD 35 billion in late 2022 after a meltdown in tech shares in the wake of inflation and interest rate hikes. But there was a massive recovery in the tech stocks in the following year in 2023.
Meta Share Price
Meta shares are trading at USD 474.99 apiece, showing a single-day gain of 20.32 percent in a day on Friday.
Beyond the notable increase in his net worth, Mark Zuckerberg is poised to enjoy additional benefits as Meta’s stock achieves an unprecedented high, marking its most substantial one-day surge to date. As a result, the co-founder of Facebook is positioned to receive an annual payout of approximately $700 million through the company’s inaugural dividend payout for investors.
Meta announced a quarterly cash dividend of 50 cents per share for both Class A and B common stock, starting from March. Considering Zuckerberg’s ownership of approximately 350 million shares, he is anticipated to receive around $175 million in each quarterly payment before taxes, as per Bloomberg’s compiled data.
Meta stock surge post layoff announcement
Meta’s strategic implementation of significant cost-cutting measures is attributed to the notable surge in its share price. Following the termination of approximately 21,000 employees and a focused reassessment of priorities, the company’s stock experienced an almost threefold increase in 2023.
To further appease investors and garner support for Mark Zuckerberg’s long-term ventures in artificial intelligence and the metaverse, Meta has introduced a new dividend and allocated an additional $50 billion for share buybacks.
In a move aligned with its commitment to metaverse development, Meta’s Reality Lab’s division underwent a round of layoffs announced in October 2023. Zuckerberg previously indicated that the majority of the scheduled layoffs within the company would be executed during the spring of this year.