Mark Zuckerberg now fourth richest in the world: Net worth crosses $200 billion, Orion glasses pay off Metaverse bet

The Orion glasses propelled Meta shares to a record high, supporting Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse bet, which initially looked like a mistake

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's net worth shot up almost sixfold to $201 billion in less than two years after the company's shares rose to a record high, according to a Bloomberg report, which added that he's now at fourth place on the world’s 500 richest people list behind Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault.

Mark Zuckerberg talks about the Orion AR glasses during the Meta Connect conference Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, in Menlo Park, California (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP)

This being Zuckerberg's first time of crossing the $200 billion wealth mark, stemmed from his big bet on the metaverse which initially looked like a colossal failure, wiping out more than $100 billion from his net worth in 2022, according to the report.

At that time, Meta also underwent its name change and struggled with short-form video content that made its competitor TikTok rise.

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However, the massive changes the company went through by becoming Meta from Facebook, started becoming fruitful with its Orion augmented reality glasses, the report, which cited analysts read.

“With the confluence of Meta’s hardware improvements over the last five years and progress with AI, Orion represents Meta’s evolution from a social media company to a Metaverse company,” the report quoted an investors note from JMP Securities analysts this week as saying.

This however, comes on the backdrop of Meta cutting 25% of its global workforce and investing further into AI-generated creators, which interact one-on-one with online fans.

Meta also introduced a $50 billion share buyback program and its first-ever quarterly dividend in a move to improve its stock performance.