Mark Zuckerberg is turning 40. Over the past 10 years, the Facebook founder's wealth has surged to $169 billion, largely due to his stake in Meta.
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May 14, 2024, marks Mark Zuckerberg's 40th birthday — and he's had quite the decade.
Zuckerberg's children were born while he was in his 30s, and he earned a degree from Harvard and a blue belt in jiu-jitsu. He also added more than $140 billion to his fortune.
Zuckerberg's net worth of $169 billion makes him the fourth richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg. As of May 16, 2014, he was worth $26.1 billion.
Zuckerberg owns most of Facebook with his 13% stake in its parent company Meta, and nearly all of his fortune — $164 billion worth — is tied to it. The company's stock has grown more than 700% over the last decade.
The company has gone from being Facebook, a website that had only traded publicly for two years, to Meta. It's the world's seventh-largest company and controls sizable portions of the world's social media platforms and advertising economy. The number of daily active users on Facebook has more than tripled, from 890 million at the end of 2014 to 2.11 billion at the end of 2023.
And while he's far from the flashiest of the centi-billionaires, Zuckerberg's lifestyle has changed in conjunction with his wealth.
The Meta CEO has amassed a real estate portfolio with an assessed value of about $200 million. He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, spent $50 million buying up properties in Palo Alto, and he spent about $59 million on two adjacent Lake Tahoe properties.
He's purchased at least 1,200 acres in Kauai, Hawaii, including about 750 acres for which he reportedly paid $100 million and 600 acres for which he paid $53 million. On part of the property, Zuckerberg is reportedly building a $100 million doomsday compound, including a 5,000-square-foot underground bunker that will be self-contained, with its own energy, food, and water supply. Try to rephrase 2nd sentence to contain phrase "Zuckerberg Hawaii compound/bunker" — that's ideal anchor text. I'm stuck!
Zuckerberg also loves his water toys. While he went viral for his $12,000 electric surfboard, he more recently splurged on a much more expensive plaything: the megayacht Launchpad, which made her maiden voyage in March. Very few details of the ship have been made public, but she reportedly cost about $300 million — and will cost six figures a year to maintain.
His spending isn't all about pleasure. In 2015, he committed to giving away 99% of his Facebook stock during his lifetime. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative that he and his wife run is committed to "eradicating disease and improving education, to addressing the needs of our local communities."
It's yet to be seen how exactly he celebrates the milestone birthday, but if his latest appearances are any indication, a new chain may be on his wish list.
