When Mark Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook 20 years ago, I wonder if he envisioned the heights his company would reach. The company – now called Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) – had just ended 2023 with record revenue and record fourth-quarter earnings. The market reacted to those results by raising the stock’s market value to $1.2 trillion.

As co-founder, Zuckerberg naturally owns a lot of Meta Platforms stock – he currently owns about 350 million shares. At today’s stock price, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zuckerberg’s net worth has grown to $169 billion.

By owning such a stake in the company, Zuckerberg has more decision-making power in Meta Platforms and can pursue projects that appeal to him. This even applies to his money-making meta universe.

Meta Platforms keeps track of the meta-universe within its Reality Labs business segment. In 2023, Reality Labs will have an operating loss of $16.1 billion. And in the last five full years, that segment has lost $51 billion.

As much money as it costs, Meta can afford it. Even with Reality Labs’ $16.1 billion loss last year, the company still made an operating profit of nearly $47 billion for the year. With that surplus, the company is going to return some of the money to shareholders in the form of quarterly dividends.

He may already be the fourth richest person in the world. But those dividends could make Zuckerberg $700 million dollars a year richer.