The Top 3 Investments in Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s Portfolio
Written by
Travis Woods
Edited by
Zuri Anderson
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American entrepreneur and original Facebook (now Meta) co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is, as of this writing, the second wealthiest human being on Earth, with a net worth of nearly $250 billion. That’s a simply staggering amount of money, a great deal of which is tied to Zuckerberg’s vast holdings in his investment portfolio.
So what exactly makes up the bulk of that portfolio? What do you invest in when you’re one of the richest people in the world?
Meta
Zuckerberg is the CEO of Meta Platforms, which operates a number of social media and communication platforms (including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp and Messenger). Additionally, he is a stakeholder in Meta, owning roughly 345 million shares of the company, per LinkedIn — a stock ownership that makes up the majority of Zuckerberg’s incredible wealth. Currently, the worth of Zuckerberg’s stake in Meta is estimated to be approximately $446 billion.
In 2012, nearly a decade before Zuckerberg rebranded his various social media holdings as Meta Platforms in 2021, the entrepreneur (through Facebook) purchased Instagram with an investment of $1 billion, per The Motley Fool.
When Zuckerberg made the massive investment, Instagram had 50 million users; since that purchase, the platform has grown exponentially to over 2 billion users worldwide. Within just a few years of Zuckerberg’s purchase, Instagram went from being worth $1 billion to $100 billion.
In 2014, Zuckerberg (again, through Facebook) purchased the messaging app WhatsApp for a surprising $19 billion. Why surprising? Because WhatsApp was not seen as a profitable company, especially at what Facebook paid.
At the time, it only had 450 million users. Now, though? WhatsApp boasts 2 billion users as it has grown by leaps and bounds in the decade-plus since Zuckerberg acquired it.
Zuckerberg’s usage of Facebook to invest in other social media platforms and apps like WhatsApp and Instagram allowed him to consolidate an incredible portfolio of businesses he was then able to fold together under new branding, thus creating his single most profitable investment venture — Meta.
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