Meta's Mark Zuckerberg is richest he's been with $170.5bn net worth

The net worth of Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta Platforms, surged by $28.1 billion after the company’s quarterly results far exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, sending its shares up about 20 per cent, Bloomberg reported.

His personal fortune is now worth $170.5 billion, the richest he’s been, and overtook Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the fourth-richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Mr Zuckerberg, 39, could receive a payout of about $700 million a year from the social media company’s first-ever dividend announced for investors.

Top 10 richest people in the world in 2023 – in pictures

On Thursday, the parent company of Facebook, the world's biggest social media platform, announced plans to buy back an additional $50 billion in shares and issue its first quarterly dividend since listing in May 2012.

The company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, said it would pay a quarterly cash dividend of 50 cents a share for class A and B common stock, beginning in March.

With Mr Zuckerberg holding about 350 million shares, he would take home about $175 million in each quarterly payment before taxes, according to Bloomberg data.

Mr Zuckerberg took home $27.1 million in total compensation in 2022, including private security costs and a base salary of $1, according to Meta’s filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Meta has not yet reported executive compensation for 2023.

He was one of the biggest wealth movers of 2023. The majority of Mr Zuckerberg's wealth is derived from his 12.8 per cent stake in Meta.

In 2022, he was languishing in 25th place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $44 billion after Meta’s stock plunged, dragged down by disappointing quarterly results and concerns that he was spending too much time – and money – on the metaverse.

However, thanks to its Magnificent Seven membership, Meta recovered its losses in 2023 and boosted Mr Zuckerberg’s wealth by 180.8 per cent, or $82.5 billion.

The California-based company reported a 201 per cent yearly surge in fourth-quarter net profit, driven by a jump in advertising revenue and an increase in user numbers.

It posted a net profit of more than $14 billion in the quarter that ended on December 31, up 21 per cent compared with the third quarter.

Revenue for the three-month period surged by an annual 25 per cent to more than $40.1 billion, exceeding analyst estimates of $39.1 billion.

This is the third consecutive quarter that the company has reported double-digit revenue growth since the fourth quarter of 2021.

“We had a good quarter as our community and business continue to grow,” Mr Zuckerberg said.

“We have made a lot of progress on our vision for advancing AI [artificial intelligence] and the metaverse.”

Mr Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard in 2004 at the age of 19 for students to match names with photos of classmates.

He took Facebook public in May 2012 and now owns about 13 per cent of the company's stock, according to Forbes magazine.

Facebook changed its name to Meta Platforms in November 2021 in a sign it was shifting the company's focus to the metaverse.

In December 2015, Mr Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, pledged to give away 99 per cent of their Meta stake over their lifetimes.

The couple own about $200 million worth of real estate and land around the world, according to wealth tracking site Celebrity Net Worth.

Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015

- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France

The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo

Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic

Power: 242bhp

Torque: 370Nm

Price: Dh136,814

While you're here

Samanth Subramanian: Imposing Hindi could undermine India's linguistic diversity

Phil Mercer: Aboriginal musicians are struggling to be heard

Gavin Esler: What we lose when we allow languages to die

The biog

Title: General Practitioner with a speciality in cardiology

Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India

Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur

How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993

Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters

Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”