Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Meta, saw a rise in his net worth of USD 10.2 billion due to the company’s outstanding quarterly results and recent announcements of two rounds of layoffs affecting 21,000 employees.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mark Zuckerberg is the 12th wealthiest person globally, with an estimated net worth of USD 87.3 billion.
In its March 2023 quarter, Meta (previously Facebook) reported sales of USD 28.65 billion, up 3% from 2022 and exceeding Wall Street projections.
The Nasdaq-listed company Meta ended the day at USD 238.56, its best closing in 15 months, after reporting better results than expected, according to The National.
The third-largest single-day increase in Mark Zuckerberg’s career increased his net worth.
As the stock market bear run reduced the personal wealth of many of the world’s tech billionaires, he lost USD 71 billion (57%) of his net worth in 2022.
“We had a good quarter, and our neighborhood keeps expanding. Our business and apps are benefiting from our AI development,” Mark Zuckerberg said while announcing the March quarter results, while adding, “We’re also becoming more efficient so we can build better products faster and put ourselves in a stronger position to deliver our long-term vision.”
However, the AR-VR division of Meta Reality Labs lost nearly USD 4 billion in the March quarter and USD 13.7 billion in 2022.
On the earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg stated that “our vision for AR glasses involves an AI-centric operating system that we think will be the foundation for the next generation of computing.”
The overall revenue Meta anticipates for the second quarter of 2023 will fall between USD 29.5 and 32 billion.
According to a revision of the March forecast, “We anticipate our full-year 2023 total expenses will be in the range of USD 86-90 billion.”
This forecast accounts for restructuring expenditures of USD 3–5 billion, including charges for consolidating facilities and severance and other staff costs.