Mark Zuckerberg’s Wealth Drops by $25 Billion as Meta Shares Plunge
Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth has decreased by approximately $25 billion following a sharp decline in Meta’s stock price. On Thursday, shares of Meta dropped over 12% to around $658.50, marking the company’s largest single-day loss of the year. This decline came after a substantial tax charge significantly impacted the company’s quarterly earnings, falling short of Wall Street’s expectations.
Meta reported third-quarter earnings per share of $1.05, which is 84% below the anticipated $6.72, according to data from FactSet. Despite generating revenue of $51.2 billion, exceeding forecasts of $49.5 billion, the company experienced an 83% decline in earnings compared to the previous year’s $6.03 per share. The sharp drop was primarily attributed to a one-time tax charge of $15.9 billion related to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted during Donald Trump’s presidency. Meta anticipates a “significant reduction” in U.S. federal cash tax payments for the remainder of 2025 and beyond.
If not for the tax charge, Meta’s earnings per share would have been approximately $7.25. In light of these results, the company has revised its guidance for capital expenditures, increasing it from a range of $66 billion to $72 billion to $70 billion to $72 billion. CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that Meta is “aggressively” preparing for the advent of superintelligence, positioning the company for what he describes as a “generational paradigm shift in many large opportunities.”
Meta’s Reality Labs division, which focuses on virtual reality technology, reported an operating loss of $4.4 billion despite generating $470 million in sales. This figure slightly surpassed Wall Street’s expectations of a $5.1 billion loss and $316 million in revenue.
Following the decline, Zuckerberg now ranks as the world’s fifth-richest individual, with an estimated net worth of $232.6 billion. Previously, he held the third position, trailing behind Oracle’s Larry Ellison (valued at $314.7 billion) and Elon Musk (worth $490.8 billion). Now, Jeff Bezos and Larry Page have surpassed him, with net worths of $238.3 billion and $236.3 billion, respectively.
In related market movements, shares of Microsoft fell 2.2% to about $529.40 despite posting better-than-expected quarterly results. The tech giant reported earnings per share of $4.13 and revenues of $77.6 billion, exceeding projections of $3.67 and $75.4 billion. Microsoft’s cloud revenue also increased by 28% year-over-year to $30.9 billion. The decline in Microsoft’s stock appears linked to a $3.1 billion hit to net income due to its investment in OpenAI, translating to a loss of $0.41 per share.
In contrast, Alphabet’s shares rose 2.7% following its earnings report, which revealed revenues exceeding $100 billion for the first time, reaching $102.3 billion. This result surpassed the estimates of $99.9 billion. As the market anticipates earnings reports from Apple and Amazon, both scheduled for release after the market closes on Thursday, Apple is projected to report earnings per share of $1.78 along with $102.2 billion in revenue, while Amazon is expected to report $1.57 in earnings per share and $177.9 billion in revenue.
Amid these developments, Meta continues to invest heavily in artificial intelligence, spending approximately $14.3 billion on the AI startup Scale AI earlier this year. The company also appointed Scale AI’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, to lead its AI initiative, Superintelligence Labs. In addition, Meta has secured several cloud deals, including a significant $10 billion agreement with Google in August, to enhance its AI infrastructure.
