Everyone Knows That Mark Zuckerberg Cofounded Facebook, Is Bullish on the Metaverse, and Is Investing in AI Superintelligence. But Few Realize He Makes Over $700 Million Annually From Something Incredibly Simple.

Many investors likely don't realize that Mark Zuckerberg shares something in common with investing great Warren Buffett. But there are plenty of other things that most investors do know about him.

In 2012, Zuckerberg donned his notorious hoodie to ring the Nasdaq bell as his company Facebook, now Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), went public. There were many questions about the future of the business at the time. But Zuckerberg and company have effectively laid them all to rest.

Facebook ended 2012 with just over 1 billion monthly active users and made $1.54 per user, on average, in the fourth quarter of that year. As of the second quarter of 2025, however, it now has nearly 3.5 billion users across its family of apps and makes $13.65 per user.

Image source: Meta Platforms.

Facebook's growth, as well as the growth in the other apps, propelled Zuckerberg's net worth to over $250 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, which is the third-highest spot on the list. But Zuckerberg isn't sitting back sipping a lemonade. His ambitions are higher still.

Facebook changed its name to Meta Platforms in 2021 because Zuckerberg believes in a concept called the metaverse -- an interactive digital world. Many companies at the time were investing in the metaverse, and it's mostly fizzled out.

But not for Meta. The company's metaverse division is called Reality Labs, and it reported an $8.7 billion operating loss in the first half of 2025 alone. In short, Zuckerberg still believes in the metaverse, as evidenced by how much money the company is willing to lose on it right now.

Beyond the metaverse, Zuckerberg is also extremely optimistic with superintelligence -- the point at which artificial intelligence (AI) surpasses human intelligence in all domains. In 2025, Meta Platforms engaged in an all-out spending spree to hire the brightest minds in the field to bring Zuckerberg's visions to life.

Everybody knows that Zuckerberg is leading the pack when it comes to social media, the metaverse, and superintelligence. But few realize that he's making gobs of money from something else entirely.

Zuckerberg's little-known income stream

On Sept. 29, Meta Platforms paid a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share. When that happened, Zuckerberg got a check for around $180 million because he owns over 340 million shares.

At this rate, Zuckerberg rakes in somewhere around $720 million annually from Meta Platforms' dividend alone. Within a few years, he could even get $1 billion in annual dividend income if Meta gradually increases its payouts.

Buffett loves dividends. In reality, he seems to prefer stock buybacks as a way to use excess cash to boost shareholder value. That's what he does with his company, Berkshire Hathaway. But stock buybacks need to be at attractive prices, and most managers don't seem to time it well. So paying out a dividend is an attractive option.

For perspective, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway makes a lot of money from his dividend stocks, including over $800 million annually from Coca-Cola. That's roughly the size of Zuckerberg's dividend from Meta, giving these two very different people something in common.

But what does any of this have to do with the average Joe? Reading about dividend income for the rich and famous hardly seems useful. But indeed, there is a lesson here for all.

Buffett's Berkshire is raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual dividend income, but it didn't start out that way. With Coca-Cola, Berkshire started investing in the 1990s. The stock price and the dividend payment were much lower back then. But by holding for over 30 years, it's grown into something incredible. Buffett calls this his "secret sauce" -- holding winners.

Zuckerberg didn't invest in Meta Platforms in the same way that Berkshire Hathaway invested in Coca-Cola. He received his shares from starting the company. But make no mistake, Zuckerberg wouldn't be half as well off as he is now if he had sold his stake after only a couple of years. Zuckerberg held on to this winner, which is Buffett's secret sauce.

The same principle holds true for any investor, even if the scale is smaller. Take a stock such as Microsoft. If you bought 10 shares 10 years ago, you would have received $12.40 in dividend income that year. But over the last 12 months, you would have received $34 -- nearly a 200% increase, not to mention the stock is up more than 1,000% as well.

If a company is growing and is paying a dividend -- like Coca-Cola for much of the last 30 years, Meta Platforms, or Microsoft -- holding on to those shares for as long as possible can help boost long-term returns.

Not everyone can have portfolios as big as those of Zuckerberg and Berkshire Hathaway. But the same principle can still help anyone build lasting wealth.

Jon Quast has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends Nasdaq and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.