According to Cointelegraph, as Facebook changed its name to Meta and expanded into metaverse hardware and artificial intelligence, Mark Zuckerberg became the fourth richest person in the world with a net worth of $201 billion.

Meta shares are currently trading at around $567, up more than sixfold from their low of $88 in November 2022. Although the stock price fell sharply in the first year after the name change, half of the world's top ten most valuable companies have since begun developing Metaverse hardware.

Zuckerberg showed off the Orion augmented reality glasses and the cheaper Quest 3S virtual reality headset at the Meta Connect event on Sept. 25. Despite the surge in its stock price, Meta cut its Metaverse budget by 20% in July 2024 and asked Reality Labs to reduce the department's spending by 20% by 2026.

Reality Labs has lost $60 billion since 2019 and continued to lose money in the second quarter of 2024, possibly due to the department's shift to artificial intelligence applications. Zuckerberg said Meta will promote the development of its AI business by increasing investment in AI research.