Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has lost about $12.2 billion from his fortune after a fresh selloff in the company’s shares raised concerns over the huge cost of its artificial intelligence ambitions.
Zuckerberg’s wealth fell 4.23 percent to an estimated $245.4 billion on Monday, according to Forbes’ Real Time Billionaires Index, taking his fortune below the $250 billion mark.
The News Chronicle reports that the latest drop came just days after Zuckerberg lost another $8.9 billion on Friday as Meta shares came under pressure.
Together, the two trading sessions have wiped more than $20 billion from his fortune.
Meta shares fell more than 4 percent to about $719.44 as investors weighed the company’s aggressive AI expansion against the enormous amount of money required to build the infrastructure behind it.
The company could spend as much as $145 billion on capital expenditure in 2026, with much of the investment going towards data centres, computing capacity and AI development.
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A Goldman Sachs assessment has added to investor concerns, suggesting that major technology companies may need hundreds of billions of dollars in annual AI revenue to justify their infrastructure spending.
Despite the latest losses, Zuckerberg remains substantially richer than he was in July, when his fortune stood at about $222.1 billion.
Meta’s AI push has also delivered some encouraging signs, with its Muse AI assistant reportedly recording about 2.8 million downloads within its first two weeks.
However, investors are now watching closely to see whether Meta can turn its enormous AI spending into equally enormous returns.
