Nandini Roy Choudhury, writer
Brief news
- Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth reached $206.2 billion, surpassing Jeff Bezos and making him the second wealthiest person globally, driven by a 68% increase in Meta’s stock price.
- Meta’s strong quarterly earnings, fueled by AI investments, have led to significant revenue growth, with a 22% increase reported in Q2.
- Despite past challenges, including a major workforce reduction, Meta’s advertising business is rebounding, and new products like Orion AR spectacles are receiving positive feedback.
Detailed news
Meta In terms of wealth, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has surpassed Jeff Bezos as the second wealthiest individual in the world.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zuckerberg’s net worth was $206.2 billion on Thursday, surpassing the $205.1 billion net worth of the former Amazon CEO and president. The index indicated that the Facebook co-founder is currently approximately $50 billion behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Zuckerberg’s net worth has increased by $78 billion since the beginning of the year, a sum that surpasses that of any other member of the 500 wealthiest individuals tracked by the Bloomberg Index, due to his 13% stake in Meta. The closing price of Meta shares on Thursday was $582.77, a record high. This represents a nearly 68% increase from the $346.29 trading price in early January.
The fact that Zuckerberg has risen to the second position on the index on Thursday is indicative of the fact that his personal wealth has increased in tandem with investor enthusiasm for the social media giant’s increasing profits this year.
Meta has consistently reported quarterly earnings that have surpassed analyst estimates, which has resulted in Wall Street’s continual cheering throughout 2024. Meta reported in July that its second-quarter sales have increased by 22% to $39.07 billion, signifying the fourth consecutive quarter of revenue growth exceeding 20%.
Meta has attributed its sales growth to the substantial artificial intelligence investments it has made, which have aided in the enhancement of the performance of its online advertising platform. In 2021, Apple implemented an iOS privacy update that significantly undermined the company’s online advertising system by reducing its capacity to monitor users across the web. Meta declared in February 2022 that the privacy modifications would result in a revenue loss of $10 billion.
In late 2022, Zuckerberg implemented a significant cost-cutting strategy that persisted for the following year and ultimately led to the termination of 21,000 Meta employees, which accounted for approximately 25% of the company’s workforce.
While Meta’s online advertising business began to rebound and was bolstered by the enormous digital ad spending campaigns of Chinese-linked retailers Temu and Shien, investors responded favorably to the company’s cost reduction.
Meta has continued to invest billions of dollars in the virtual and augmented reality technologies necessary to support the futuristic concept of the metaverse. However, investors have become more accepting of the investments as long as the company’s primary ad business remains robust.
Meta introduced its Orion AR spectacles last week, which received favorable feedback from the limited number of individuals who have tested the prototype.
Source : CNBC News
