Meta got bumped off world's top 20 companies' list, thanks to Zuckerberg's relentless metaverse pursuit

• Meta's share price tanked nearly 25% on Thursday, taking its market cap down to around $260 billion.
• It is now the world's 27th most valuable company, after starting the year in the sixth spot.

Once the world's sixth largest company, Meta Platforms has now dropped off a list of the world's top 20 most valuable companies by market capitalization, thanks to CEO Mark Zuckerberg's relentless push into the metaverse.

Meta's demotion came after its share price tanked nearly 25% on Thursday, shaving a quarter off the stock's market value, or roughly around $65 billion.

Meta's market cap is now around $260 billion, making it the world's 27th most valuable company. That's way behind Apple at the top of the list, Tesla in the sixth place, and Exxon in the 10th spot, according to a Bloomberg ranking. It's also a hard fall from a market cap of just under $1 trillion at the start of the year.

On Thursday, Meta shares fell as low as $97.36, after the company reported its second straight quarterly revenue decline. Meta's stock price is down about 71% this year.

Thursday's share price drop is only eight months after Meta's shares plunged 26.4% on February 3 — the largest one-day loss in US corporate history — after reporting that Facebook's daily active user base shrank for the first time ever. This alone wiped out $240 billion off Meta's market cap.

An extended decline Meta's stock price in February knocked the company off the world's top 10 most valuable companies list.

There could be more trouble ahead for Facebook's parent, as it gave a weak fourth-quarter guidance, warning of declining sales due to a slowdown in digital ad spending. Investors and analysts are also wary about Zuckerberg's metaverse pursuit, which is expected to lose even more money in 2023.

Zuckerberg, not immune to the Meta's woes, has already seen his wealth slump by 70% this year as of Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Most of the billionaire's wealth comes from a 13% stake in Meta.

He is now worth $37.7 billion, meaning Zuckerberg's still the 28th-richest person in the world after starting 2022 with a $125 billion fortune, according to the index.

Meta told Insider the company has "no comment on stock volatility."