In the world of the financial elite, where billions are made and lost daily, Mark Zuckerberg, a regular on the top 10 list of the world's richest, has managed to lose half of his net worth since the first of January 2022. While he won’t skip a mortgage payment or line up at a food bank, he is still an astonishing $70 billion down since December 2021.

Most of Zuckerberg's net worth is tied up in stock, and his primary holding is in the company Meta, which owns Facebook and several other high-profile businesses. Meta's share price has taken a significant beating after peaking at the end of last year, and whatever happens to Meta is reflected in its owners’ bank balance.

Zuckerberg's influence on his company's direction may have caused his current situation as he attempts to lay the foundations of the metaverse, which he sees as the next version of the internet. He considers the metaverse an internet where you can walk around, hang out, work, and attend events, and your physical presence in that world is made possible through a VR headset.

Not everyone is as sold on the concept as the Facebook founder. In February 2022, when the company admitted it lost more than $10 billion on its VR project, and the final quarter of 2021 was its worst financial period, the financial revelation prompted a backlash that Meta's board has been trying to mitigate ever since.

Responding to suggestions that Meta had been selling its hardware at a loss or break even in an attempt to dominate the market, in June, Meta's flagship headset got a huge price increase. Unfortunately, the problems don't just exist on the hardware front; when Meta unveiled the company's "HorizonWorlds" VR social platform, it was panned for how bad it looked.

Evidence suggests that Zuckerberg's VR gamble will likely feature heavily in Meta's upcoming 2022 Connect conference, which is putting shareholders off. But despite things looking bleak in the short term, Zuckerberg's backing of the metaverse may pay off massively in the future, and if he is correct, then the payoff will be huge.