Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, saw his personal fortune shrink by nearly $5 billion on Thursday, November 6, 2025. This significant decline in wealth caused him to fall from the third-richest person in the world to the sixth, according to recent reports. The shift came as Meta's shares experienced a notable drop in value.^[1][2][3] ### Meta Shares Face New Scrutiny The latest downturn in Zuckerberg's wealth directly followed a Reuters report. The report indicated that Meta's internal projections suggested a substantial portion of its advertising revenue could come from running scam advertisements. This news sent Meta's shares down by 2.3% on Thursday, impacting the value of Zuckerberg's roughly 13% stake in the company.^[1][2][3] His net worth was specifically reduced by $4.6 billion, pushing his total estimated fortune to $212.5 billion.^[1][2] This recent dip adds to a challenging period for Meta's stock, which has seen a nearly 17.5% slide over the past week.^[2] ### Billionaire Rankings Shift Before this latest stock movement, Mark Zuckerberg held the position of the world's third-richest person. He was ranked behind only Tesla's Elon Musk and Oracle's Larry Ellison.^[1][2] Following Thursday's drop, Zuckerberg now ranks behind Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in addition to Musk and Ellison.^[1][2] This marks a notable shift in the exclusive list of the world's wealthiest individuals, highlighting the volatility of fortunes tied to tech company performance. ### Broader Financial Pressures on Meta This recent $5 billion loss for Zuckerberg comes amidst a turbulent time for Meta Platforms. Just days earlier, around October 30-31, 2025, Meta's stock experienced an even more dramatic plunge.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} That earlier decline saw Zuckerberg's net worth fall by approximately $29.2 billion, pushing him from third to fifth place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} The primary catalyst for that larger drop was Meta's third-quarter earnings report. The company announced a substantial one-time non-cash tax charge of $15.9 billion. This charge was linked to the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" by former U.S. President Donald Trump.^[4][5][9] This unexpected expense severely impacted Meta's reported net income for the quarter. Without this charge, Meta's net income would have significantly increased.^[9] ### Investors Question AI Spending Spree Beyond the tax charge, investors have also expressed concerns about Meta's aggressive spending on artificial intelligence (AI).^{[10][5][6][11][7][8]} The company announced plans for a massive $30 billion debt sale to fund its AI research and development initiatives.^[6][7][8] Meta also projected capital expenditures of up to $72 billion this year, with potentially even larger outlays in 2026.^[12] Some analysts have compared this significant investment in AI to Meta's earlier, costly pivot toward the metaverse, which also raised investor skepticism about immediate returns.^[12] Tiffany Wade, a senior portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, noted that "Investors are losing patience" with Meta's spending patterns.^[12] Brian Mulberry, a portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, also highlighted that "The total dollar spend is just kind of what hangs us up a little bit."^[5] These comments reflect a growing unease among some in the financial community regarding Meta's long-term investment strategy without clearer, near-term revenue generation from these initiatives. ### Zuckerberg Remains Focused on AI Future Despite the market's reaction, Mark Zuckerberg remains steadfast in his vision for Meta's future. He has publicly stated that the company is "very focused on building personal superintelligence for everyone" and aims to establish "Meta as the leading frontier AI lab."^[5] Zuckerberg believes that aggressively front-loading capacity building for AI is the "right strategy," positioning Meta for a "generational paradigm shift" if superintelligence arrives sooner.^[12] This strong commitment to AI is seen as crucial for Meta's long-term competitiveness in the evolving tech landscape. The company aims to integrate AI services into its core products, including Facebook and Instagram.^[6] However, unlike some rivals with established enterprise cloud businesses, Meta primarily relies on advertising to monetize its AI investments, which some analysts see as a challenge.^[12] ### A History of Volatility Fluctuations in Mark Zuckerberg's wealth are not new. His fortune is heavily tied to Meta's stock performance.^[13] In 2022, for instance, Zuckerberg's net worth plummeted by an estimated $71 billion, falling from third to 22nd on Forbes' billionaires list.^[14][13] This significant drop was largely due to concerns over Meta's metaverse investments and changes in Apple's iOS privacy policies that impacted ad targeting.^[14][15] Following that period, Meta's stock saw an incredible recovery, soaring over 547% from its October 2022 low to near all-time highs by early 2024.^[16] This recovery was partly attributed to Zuckerberg's declaration of 2023 as the "year of efficiency," which involved significant job cuts and a renewed focus on core platforms and AI.^[16] The current dip, while less severe than the 2022 crash, serves as a reminder of the inherent volatility in the fortunes of tech billionaires whose wealth is concentrated in company shares. The ongoing market skepticism about Meta's AI spending, combined with new concerns over potential scam ad revenue, creates a complex financial environment for the tech giant and its founder. The coming months will show how Meta navigates these challenges and if Zuckerberg's bold AI bets will ultimately pay off.