Mark Zuckerberg started Friday as the fourth richest person on the planet. By the afternoon, he had slipped to sixth. Meta shares tumbled about 4 percent, and the Meta stock slide wiped nearly 9 billion dollars off his personal fortune in a single trading session.
According to Forbes, Mark Zuckerberg net worth fell by about 8.9 billion dollars to 257.5 billion dollars by 2:30 pm Eastern Time on Friday, September 25. Meta shares traded at around 749 dollars at the time. Zuckerberg owns about 13 percent of Meta, so every move in the share price hits his fortune directly. The 4 percent Meta shares drop came just one day after the stock had jumped 4.5 percent, which made the reversal sting even more.
Forbes moved Zuckerberg from fourth to sixth on its Real Time Billionaires list during the session. Google cofounder Sergey Brin sat just above him at 259.9 billion dollars.
Wall Street Questions the AI Spending Spree
The selloff followed a warning from Goldman Sachs about the enormous sums tech giants are pouring into artificial intelligence infrastructure. The bank cautioned that AI hyperscalers, including Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Oracle, may struggle to earn back their investments.
Goldman Sachs estimates these companies need to generate around 300 billion dollars in yearly revenue from AI services just to break even on their capital spending. For the spending to deliver solid profits, that figure would need to reach about 1 trillion dollars a year, Forbes reported. Investors heard the warning and started asking whether Meta’s AI bets will pay off fast enough.
The timing made the drop more painful. Before Friday, September had been a spectacular month for Meta. The stock had gained about 36 percent during the month. Excitement around Muse, Meta’s new personal AI assistant, drove the rally.
According to Forbes, Muse pulled in 2.8 million downloads within its first two weeks, based on data from Sensor Tower. Muse can handle everyday tasks like sending emails, booking travel and making transactions for its users. The basic version costs nothing, while paid plans run 20 dollars and 100 dollars a month for heavier use. Forbes noted that Muse can even sell a car on a user’s behalf, a glimpse of how far personal AI assistants have come.
The rally had carried Meta close to a historic milestone. On Thursday the company ended the day less than 1 percent short of a 2 trillion dollar market cap, Forbes reported. Friday’s slide pushed that landmark a little further out of reach.
While Zuckerberg bled billions, another tech billionaire enjoyed a career best day. Michael Dell, founder of Dell Technologies, gained more than 10 billion dollars on Friday. Mint reported the figure from Forbes data and put Dell’s fortune at 275.9 billion dollars, making him the day’s biggest billionaire gainer.
Dell’s surge followed an upbeat assessment from Morgan Stanley that sent Dell Technologies shares soaring. His company sits at the center of the AI infrastructure boom, selling the servers and data storage systems that power artificial intelligence. Dell overtook both Zuckerberg and Brin in the rankings, briefly touching 276.4 billion dollars during the session.
The contrast captures this market moment perfectly. Investors punished Meta for spending heavily on AI, while they rewarded Dell for selling the tools of the AI gold rush.
For now, Zuckerberg’s loss exists mostly on paper. His fortune still stands at 257.5 billion dollars, a sum most people cannot even picture. But the episode shows how fast sentiment can turn when Wall Street starts doubting the AI spending spree.
