(NewsNation) — Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of Facebook parent company Meta, has built a fortune as a technology entrepreneur and philanthropist.
A billionaire by age 23, he’s currently ranked as the fourth wealthiest person in the world by Forbes, with an estimated net worth of $179.5 billion. However, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index places his net worth at $187 billion, also ranking him fourth.
Here’s a closer look at Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth.
Mark Zuckerberg creates, acquires social media platforms
At 19, Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook in 2004, which now has more than 3 billion users.
He took the company public in 2012 and owns about 13% of its stock, according to Forbes, which is where the bulk of his net wealth comes from today. In the same year, Zuckerberg acquired Instagram for $1 billion in a combination of cash and stock.
In March 2014, Facebook acquired Oculus VR Company, responsible for the virtual reality device known as Oculus Rift, for $2 billion. Later, in October 2014, Zuckerberg acquired messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion.
In 2021, Facebook rebranded as Meta as it turned its focus to the metaverse.
Mark Zuckerberg’s real estate and vehicles
In May 2011, Zuckerberg purchased a 5,000 square-foot home in Palo Alto, California, for $7 million, adding a “custom-made artificially intelligent assistant,” according to Business Insider.
He later spent an additional $43 million on surrounding homes in Crescent Park, according to The Wall Street Journal. In July 2022, he sold it for $31 million in an off-market deal, marking the largest residential real estate deal in San Francisco at the time.
Zuckerberg is building a 5,000-square-foot underground bunker at his Hawaiian compound, featuring a “blast-resistant door,” Wired previously reported.
In July, he purchased two lakefront properties on Lake Tahoe for a total of $59 million.
Though Zuckerberg has generally driven relatively inexpensive vehicles, he owns a luxury sports car, an Italian Pagani Huayra, which sells for upward of $1 million, per Business Insider.
Mark Zuckerberg lawsuits
In 2014, Zuckerberg spent $100 million on two properties on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i: the Kahu’aina Plantation, a 357-acre former sugarcane plantation, and Pila’a Beach, a 393-acre property with a white-sand beach.
However, his construction of a 6-foot wall around the property in 2016 angered neighbors, and in 2017, he sued Hawaiian families who had legal ownership claims on parts of his land.
Although he later dropped the lawsuit, residents accused him of “neocolonialism.”
Facebook is among the several social media apps that may be subject to lawsuits in California if children become addicted to their apps.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims Meta knowingly targets preteen users with an addictive app featuring algorithms that lead users to harmful content.
In 2022, U.S. Sun reporter Charlotte Edwards said there’s a lot consumers don’t know about Zuckerberg. He spends $27 million a year just on security to keep him and his family safe, according to Edwards.
“This is a man that has big plans for the world. He’s investing billions right now in the metaverse and he’s creating this new virtual reality that he thinks we’re going to live in in the next 10 years,” Edwards said.
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