Meet peak summertime Zuck

Mark Zuckerberg once got dragged on social media for having a face full of suntan lotion. No longer — it's all about the bronzing now for Zuck.

• On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg hit the interview circuit to promote Meta's latest AI model, Llama 3.1.
• The Meta CEO had a very visible sunglasses tan in one of his interviews.
• The tanned look is a far cry from the old Zuckerberg, who once surfed with a face full of sunscreen.

Mark Zuckerberg sure had a lot of fun in the sun this summer.

Zuckerberg gave an interview to AI newsletter writer Rowan Cheung on Tuesday, after Meta released its latest AI model, Llama 3.1, on Tuesday.

While the Meta CEO was there to hype his company's latest AI offering, the interview was just as notable for Zuckerberg's visible sunglasses tan.

Zuckerberg's new bronzed look is right on brand. In the past year, he has embraced a style glow-up. The billionaire has ditched his uniform of gray T-shirts for gold chains and shearling brown jackets.

The hydrofoil enthusiast also seems to have cut down on his sunscreen usage. Back in 2020, Zuckerberg was mocked and memed after the New York Post snapped a photo of him surfing with a face full of sunscreen.

"I'm not a person who's under the illusion that I look particularly cool at any point with what I'm doing," Zuckerberg said of the photo during a companywide Q&A with Meta employees, per leaked audio obtained by The Verge.

The Zuckerberg of today, however, is paying a lot more attention to whether he looks cool. The billionaire released an Instagram video of himself hydrofoiling while wearing a tuxedo and a pair of Meta Ray-Bans on Independence Day.

The video, scored to Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA," featured a beer-sipping Zuckerberg riding the waves while clutching an American flag.

To be sure, Zuckerberg's style evolution isn't just about aesthetics.

The social media mogul's reputation was left in tatters after the 2018 Cambridge Analytical scandal, in which Facebook was accused of allowing the political analytics firm to improperly access some 87 million users' data.

That, coupled with Meta's ambition of winning over more millennial users, has driven Zuckerberg toward an image makeover that may win him some fans.

"While our company has a special role in the lives of this generation, this is likely particularly important for how I show up because I am the most well-known person of my generation," Zuckerberg said in an email to Meta colleagues and board members on January 4, 2020.

"I think this overall shift is something we should consider for how our company communicates and shows up more broadly, but it's something I'm definitely going to think about more in terms of how I communicate," he added.

Representatives at Meta for Zuckerberg didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.