Mark Zuckerberg is the American co-founder and chief executive of Meta, the company he started as Facebook in a Harvard dorm room in 2004. Two decades on he controls the world’s largest social-media empire — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger — and has redirected it towards artificial intelligence, while standing among the three or four richest people alive.
| Full Name | Mark Elliot Zuckerberg |
| Born | 14 May 1984, White Plains, New York, USA |
| Age | 42 (as of 2026) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur; co-founder and CEO of Meta Platforms |
| Known For | Meta — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp |
| Net Worth (est.) | About $216 billion (Forbes est., 2025) |
Early Life: The Dentist’s Son Who Coded
Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, New York, and raised in nearby Dobbs Ferry, the son of Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist, and Karen, a psychiatrist. He began programming as a middle-schooler — building a messaging tool, ‘ZuckNet’, so his father’s dental office could communicate with the house — and was tutored by a professional developer while still at school. At the Phillips Exeter Academy he excelled in classics, maths and fencing (he captained the fencing team), and in 2002 he entered Harvard to study psychology and computer science.
TheFacebook in a Harvard Dorm
In February 2004, as a Harvard sophomore, Zuckerberg launched ‘TheFacebook’ from his dorm room with Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The site spread campus by campus; Zuckerberg left Harvard, moved the company to Palo Alto, California, and took early backing from investor Peter Thiel. He famously declined a reported $1 billion takeover offer from Yahoo in 2006. Facebook opened to the general public, passed a billion users in 2012 — the year of its stock-market flotation — and its founding story became the subject of the film The Social Network (2010) and long-running legal disputes with the Winklevoss twins and Saverin, all settled years ago.
Instagram, WhatsApp and the Meta Era
Zuckerberg’s defining deals built the modern empire: Instagram, bought in 2012 for $1 billion when it had 13 employees, and WhatsApp, bought in 2014 for about $19 billion. In 2021 he renamed the parent company Meta, betting heavily on virtual-reality ‘metaverse’ hardware through its Reality Labs division — an expensive project that continues alongside the core apps. From 2023 his focus widened to AI: Meta’s open-weight Llama models, huge data-centre construction and, in 2025, a multibillion-dollar push to build a superintelligence team, including a major investment in Scale AI. Meta’s market value has made Zuckerberg a fixture near the very top of the rich lists.
Mark Zuckerberg Net Worth
Forbes estimated Zuckerberg’s net worth at about $216 billion in 2025. He owns roughly 13 per cent of Meta but controls it outright through dual-class shares carrying extra votes. Because the fortune is a single stock, Forbes’ figure swings with Meta’s share price — which climbed steeply through 2024–25 on advertising growth and AI enthusiasm, at times putting him second only to Elon Musk. Readers should treat the number as a live estimate: it is recalculated from public shareholdings and market prices, not from any disclosure by Zuckerberg himself.
Personal Life and Family
Zuckerberg married Priscilla Chan in 2012, the day after Facebook’s IPO; they had met in a queue for the bathroom at a Harvard party in 2003. Chan, a former teacher and paediatrician, co-leads the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, founded in 2015, through which the couple pledged to give away 99 per cent of their Meta shares over their lifetimes to causes in science, education and justice. They have three daughters — Maxima (born 2015), August (2017) and Aurelia (2023) — and live mainly in Palo Alto, with substantial property in Hawaii. A trained fencer in his youth, Zuckerberg has more recently become an enthusiastic mixed-martial-arts hobbyist.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Mark Zuckerberg?
He was born on 14 May 1984, making him 42 years old in 2026.
What is Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth?
Forbes estimated about $216 billion in 2025, from his roughly 13 per cent stake in Meta; it moves daily with Meta’s share price.
When did Mark Zuckerberg found Facebook?
In February 2004, from his Harvard dorm room, with Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.
Who is Mark Zuckerberg’s wife?
Dr Priscilla Chan, a former teacher and paediatrician, whom he married in 2012; together they run the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Related Biographies
Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison — more in our Billionaires & Rich Lists collection.
Net worth and salary figures are estimates based on publicly available sources and may change over time.
