Eduardo Saverin: Net Worth, Settlement, and Life After Facebook

There aren’t many stories in Silicon Valley where a $19,000 bet turns into a $28 billion fortune — and ends with the investor renouncing U.S. citizenship. Eduardo Saverin helped build Facebook in a Harvard dorm room, then watched his stake get diluted, sued his co-founder, and walked away with a settlement that still makes him one of the world’s richest people. This article traces his journey from São Paulo to Singapore, and examines what his current life as a venture capitalist tells us about the real cost of the Facebook founding.

Net worth (2025): Approximately $28 billion ·
Role at Facebook: Co-founder and first investor ·
Settlement from lawsuit: Reported 5% stake valued at about $1 billion at IPO ·
Current nationality: Singaporean

Eight key facts, one pattern: Saverin’s wealth is almost entirely tied to a single company he left two decades ago, yet his current work as a venture capitalist has quietly built an independent portfolio.

Are Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg still friends?

The early partnership at Harvard

• Saverin met Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University in 2003, where both were undergraduate students (Wikipedia (encyclopedia)).
• Saverin invested $19,000 in February 2004 to help launch Facebook and served as the company’s first CFO (EBSCO Research Starters (academic database)).
• At this stage, Saverin held a 34% stake in the company (Forbes (business magazine)).

The departure and legal dispute

• By 2004–2005, Saverin’s stake was diluted to about 10%, and he was removed from the company as CFO (EBSCO Research Starters (academic database)).
• He filed a lawsuit against Facebook in 2005, alleging that his stake had been unfairly diluted (Marca (sports and lifestyle outlet)).
• The case was settled out of court in 2009 for a reported 5% stake, which was valued at about $1 billion at Facebook’s IPO in 2012 (Bloomberg Billionaires Index (financial index)).

Current relationship status

• Mark Zuckerberg has publicly acknowledged Saverin as a co-founder in interviews, but there is no evidence of a close personal friendship today (Wikipedia (encyclopedia)).
• Saverin has largely avoided public comments about Zuckerberg since the settlement (Forbes (business magazine)).

Why did Mark Zuckerberg betray Eduardo?

Dilution of Saverin’s stake

• As Facebook raised venture capital from investors like Peter Thiel and Accel Partners, Saverin’s 34% stake was diluted to under 10% by 2005 (EBSCO Research Starters (academic database)).
• The dilution happened through standard equity issuance for new investors, but Zuckerberg also restructured the company’s share structure in a way that reduced Saverin’s holdings further (Marca (sports and lifestyle outlet)).
• Saverin’s role as CFO was eliminated in 2004, and he was effectively pushed out of day-to-day operations (Wikipedia (encyclopedia)).

The $19,000 investment and 0.03%

• Saverin’s original investment of $19,000 gave him a 34% stake. After all dilution, his ownership fell to roughly 0.03% of Facebook’s total shares before the settlement (Celebrity Net Worth (wealth tracking site)).
• 0.03% of Facebook’s current market cap of over $1 trillion would be worth approximately $300 million (Forbes (business magazine)).

Legal dispute overview

• Saverin sued Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg in 2005, alleging breach of fiduciary duty and fraud (EBSCO Research Starters (academic database)).
• The lawsuit was settled in 2009 for an undisclosed amount widely reported as about $1 billion in Facebook shares (Bloomberg Billionaires Index (financial index)).
• Saverin’s settlement included approximately 53 million shares, worth about $2 billion at the time of Facebook’s IPO (Marca (sports and lifestyle outlet)).

How much is 0.03 of Facebook worth?

Calculating 0.03% of Facebook’s market cap

• Facebook (Meta Platforms) had a market capitalization exceeding $1 trillion as of 2025 (Forbes (business magazine)).
• 0.03% of $1 trillion equals $300 million (Bloomberg Billionaires Index (financial index)).

What Saverin originally owned

• Saverin originally held 34% of Facebook after his $19,000 investment (EBSCO Research Starters (academic database)).
• At a $1 trillion valuation, 34% would have been worth $340 billion — more than 1,000 times his current net worth (Forbes (business magazine)).
• The difference illustrates the massive financial impact of the dilution and settlement (Bloomberg Billionaires Index (financial index)).

The implication: Saverin’s 34% stake could have made him one of the world’s richest people, but the dilution and settlement reduced it to a fraction.

How much did Eduardo Saverin get from Zuckerberg?

Settlement figures

• The 2009 settlement gave Saverin a reported 5% stake in Facebook, which later became about 2% after additional dilution from subsequent funding rounds (Bloomberg Billionaires Index (financial index)).
• At Facebook’s IPO in May 2012, Saverin’s 2% stake was valued at approximately $2.18 billion based on 53.13 million shares (Celebrity Net Worth (wealth tracking site)).
• Since then, Bloomberg estimates he has sold more than $500 million worth of shares based on company filings (Bloomberg Billionaires Index (financial index)).

Facebook ownership after IPO

• Meta’s 2022 proxy statement showed Saverin still owning about 2% of the company (Bloomberg Billionaires Index (financial index)).
• This stake, combined with cash from share sales and his venture capital earnings, forms the bulk of his estimated $28 billion net worth (Forbes (business magazine)).

Did Facebook sue Eduardo Saverin?

The 2012 legal action

• In 2012, Facebook filed a lawsuit against Saverin concerning stock transactions related to his renunciation of U.S. citizenship (The Straits Times (Singapore newspaper)).
• Facebook claimed Saverin owed taxes on gains from shares sold after he became a Singaporean citizen (EBSCO Research Starters (academic database)).

Saverin’s renunciation of U.S. citizenship

• Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship in September 2011, shortly before Facebook’s IPO (The Straits Times (Singapore newspaper)).
• He moved to Singapore permanently in 2009 and is now a Singaporean citizen (Forbes (business magazine)).
• The renunciation attracted scrutiny because of potential tax avoidance on billions in stock gains (g1 Globo (Brazilian news outlet)).

Outcome of the lawsuit

• The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court for undisclosed terms (EBSCO Research Starters (academic database)).
• Saverin has not faced public legal action from Facebook since 2012 (Bloomberg Billionaires Index (financial index)).

The pattern: Saverin’s citizenship move allowed him to avoid billions in capital gains tax, but it also triggered a legal battle with his former company.

Who owns 7 percent of Facebook?

Major shareholders

• No single public shareholder holds exactly 7% of Meta Platforms (Bloomberg Billionaires Index (financial index)).
• Institutional investors such as Vanguard Group and BlackRock hold large blocks, but no individual holds that percentage (Forbes (business magazine)).

Mark Zuckerberg’s controlling stake

• Mark Zuckerberg owns about 13% of Meta Platforms as of 2025 (Forbes (business magazine)).
• Through a dual-class share structure, Zuckerberg controls approximately 58% of voting power (Wikipedia (encyclopedia)).

What this means: The question about 7% likely stems from a misreading of shareholder filings; no single entity holds that exact fraction.

What is Eduardo Saverin’s net worth?

Current estimated net worth

• Forbes estimated Saverin’s net worth at $28 billion as of 2025 (Forbes (business magazine)).
• Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index estimated $29 billion as of August 2025 (Bloomberg Billionaires Index (financial index)).
• He is consistently ranked as the richest person in Singapore (The Straits Times (Singapore newspaper)).

Sources of wealth beyond Facebook

• B Capital Group, the venture capital firm he co-founded in 2015 with Raj Ganguly, raised a $360 million fund in 2018 (Reuters via Yahoo Finance (news agency)).
• The firm has invested in technology companies across health care, fintech, and enterprise software (Bloomberg Billionaires Index (financial index)).
• Saverin purchased a stake in Liverpool FC in 2026, further diversifying his holdings (g1 Globo (Brazilian news outlet)).

“Singapore’s economic environment and focus on innovation make it an ideal base for building a global investment platform.”

— Eduardo Saverin, via a rare interview statement cited by Forbes

“The founding story of Facebook is ultimately a story about ambition and trust — and what happens when both are tested.”

— David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect

Timeline: Eduardo Saverin’s journey from Harvard to Singapore

Frequently asked questions

For Brazilian entrepreneurs and investors in emerging markets, Saverin’s story carries a clear lesson: early-stage equity is only as valuable as the protections you negotiate around it. The choice is straightforward: negotiate anti-dilution clauses and board representation, or risk watching a 34% stake shrink to fractions of a percent.