Mark Zuckerberg Loses IDR 416 Trillion Due To Meta Shares Falling

Mark Zuckerberg suffered heavy losses as shares of Meta plunged. (photo: facebook)

JAKARTA - Mark Zuckerberg lost 29 billion US diesel (IDR 416 trillion) net worth on Thursday, February 3, as shares of Meta Platforms Inc. suffered a record decline in one day. This comes following disappointing earnings forecasts that rocked the global tech landscape.

The IDR 416 trillion loss suffered by the Facebook founder is almost equivalent to the Indonesia National Economic Recovery (PEN) fund in 2022, which is IDR 455.6 trillion or USD 31 billion.

Meta shares fell 26%, erasing more than $200 billion in the biggest one-day write-off of market value ever for a company in the US. That lowers founder and Chief Executive Officer Zuckerberg's net worth to "only" $85 billion, according to Forbes.

Zuckerberg owns about 12.8% of the tech giant formerly known as Facebook.

His one-day drop in wealth was one of the largest ever and comes after Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk's one-day paper loss of $35 billion in November. Musk, the world's richest man, then surveyed Twitter users whether he should sell his 10% stake in the electric car maker. Tesla shares have yet to recover from the resulting sell-off.

At least 21 brokerages cut price targets on Meta after the company posted weaker-than-expected forecasts on Wednesday, February 2, blaming privacy shifts at Apple Inc and increasing competition for users from rivals including TikTok and YouTube.

After the $29 billion write-off, Zuckerberg is in twelfth place on Forbes' list of real-time billionaires. His position is now under the Indian business moguls, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani.

To be sure, trading in technology stocks remains volatile as investors struggle to factor in the impact of high inflation and expected rate hikes.

Zuckerberg sold $4.47 billion worth of Meta shares last year, before the 2021 tech market rout. The stock sale came as part of a predetermined 10b5-1 trading plan, which executives use to allay concerns about insider trading.