KEY POINTS
- Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Meta Platforms, is the richest person in Brazil, with his fortune of over $28 billion stemming almost entirely from a stake in Facebook.
- Saverin’s journey to immense wealth began with a $15,000 initial investment in Facebook, but his ownership was later diluted after a contentious falling out with co-founder Mark Zuckerberg that resulted in a legal settlement.
- Now a resident of Singapore, Saverin strategically renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2011 to avoid capital gains taxes on his shares and has since co-founded B Capital Group, a global venture capital firm.
Eduardo Saverin, the Brazilian-born co-founder of Meta Platforms, has solidified his position as the wealthiest individual in Brazil, commanding a fortune estimated at over $28 billion. His immense wealth stems almost entirely from a small but incredibly valuable stake in the social media behemoth he helped launch from a Harvard dorm room in 2004 alongside Mark Zuckerberg. Now a resident of Singapore, Saverin’s journey from early Facebook financier to global venture capitalist highlights a modern path to riches, one defined by digital innovation, a contentious legal battle, and strategic international moves that continue to shape his financial empire.
The Harvard Dorm Room and a Billion-Dollar Breakup
The story of Eduardo Saverin’s wealth is inextricably linked to the founding of Facebook, now Meta. While a student at Harvard University, studying economics, Saverin met a fellow undergraduate, Mark Zuckerberg. Recognizing the potential of Zuckerberg’s early social networking concept, then called “TheFacebook,” Saverin provided the crucial initial seed capital.
He invested $15,000 to cover the startup’s initial server costs and formalize the business. In exchange, he was named the company’s first chief financial officer (CFO) and business manager, receiving a 30% stake in the nascent enterprise. His early responsibilities included developing the original business plan and securing advertiser relationships.
However, the relationship between the co-founders quickly soured as the company grew at an explosive pace. Disagreements over the company’s direction, fundraising strategies, and Saverin’s level of involvement led to a now-infamous falling out. While Saverin was in New York attempting to secure advertising deals, Zuckerberg and other key players, including Sean Parker and Peter Thiel, moved to Palo Alto, California, to immerse themselves in the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
This geographic and strategic separation culminated in a move by Zuckerberg to dilute Saverin’s ownership. Through a complex restructuring of the company in Delaware, Saverin’s 30% stake was effectively marginalized, leaving him with a significantly smaller share. This act prompted a lengthy and bitter legal battle, with Saverin suing Zuckerberg and Facebook for breaching their fiduciary duty.
The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Crucially, the settlement reaffirmed Saverin’s status as a co-founder and awarded him a stake in the company that, while reduced from his original 30%, was still substantial. It is this very stake, estimated to be around 2% of Meta today, that forms the bedrock of his multi-billion-dollar fortune.
A New Chapter in Singapore: The Rise of B Capital
Following the settlement with Facebook, Saverin largely stepped away from the public eye and charted a new course for himself as a global investor. In 2009, he moved to Singapore, a decision that would prove to be as financially astute as his initial investment in Facebook. The city-state offered a favorable tax environment and a strategic position as a gateway to the booming technology markets across Asia.
Renouncing Citizenship: A Controversial Financial Strategy
One of the most defining and controversial decisions of Saverin’s career came in 2011, when he officially renounced his U.S. citizenship. The timing was critical, as it occurred just months before Facebook’s massive Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2012. By relinquishing his U.S. passport, Saverin avoided potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. capital gains taxes on his newfound liquidity from the IPO.
As a resident of Singapore, which does not have a capital gains tax, his financial liability was significantly reduced. While Saverin’s spokesperson maintained the decision was based on his interest in living and working in Singapore, the move was widely viewed by critics as a strategic tax avoidance maneuver. The act even spurred legislative proposals in the U.S. Senate, such as the “Ex-PATRIOT Act,” aimed at preventing wealthy individuals from avoiding taxes by renouncing their citizenship.
Building B Capital Group
In Singapore, Saverin didn’t remain a passive holder of Meta stock. In 2015, he co-founded the venture capital firm B Capital Group with Raj Ganguly, a former executive at Bain Capital. The firm was built on the premise of connecting innovative startups with major global corporations, leveraging its founders’ deep networks and expertise.
B Capital focuses on investing in late-stage technology companies across sectors like enterprise software, fintech, healthcare, and logistics. It has raised billions of dollars across several funds and built a global portfolio with investments in companies such as the scooter company Bird, logistics platform ShipBob, and Indian fintech firm Khatabook. This venture represents Saverin’s evolution from a one-time angel investor into a formidable force in the global venture capital landscape, actively shaping the next generation of tech giants.
Anatomy of a Tech Fortune
Despite his success with B Capital, the overwhelming majority of Eduardo Saverin’s net worth remains tied to his shares in Meta Platforms. His wealth is a direct reflection of the public market’s valuation of the company he helped create. When Meta’s stock price surges on strong earnings or positive news about its “metaverse” ambitions, Saverin’s fortune can increase by billions of dollars in a single day.
Conversely, his wealth is also vulnerable to the stock’s volatility. During periods when Meta has faced public scrutiny over data privacy, regulatory threats, or slowing user growth, its stock has fallen, taking a significant bite out of Saverin’s net worth. This illustrates a key characteristic of modern tech wealth: it is often less about liquid cash and more about the paper value of equity in a publicly traded company.
Though he lives in Singapore and made his fortune through an American company, his Brazilian birthright places him at the top of Brazil’s wealth rankings. Born in São Paulo to a wealthy Jewish family, he moved to Miami in 1993. His story is one of a globalized citizen whose identity and wealth transcend national borders.
Brazil’s Billionaire Landscape: A Tale of Old and New Money
Eduardo Saverin’s position as Brazil’s richest person is notable not just for its scale but also for its source. He stands apart from many of the country’s other ultra-wealthy individuals, whose fortunes were often built in more traditional sectors. For decades, the list of Brazil’s wealthiest was dominated by figures like Jorge Paulo Lemann and his partners at 3G Capital, who built an empire through acquisitions in the beer (Anheuser-Busch InBev) and food (Kraft Heinz) industries.
Other prominent fortunes in Brazil come from banking, such as the Safra family, and industrial commodities. These “old money” empires were built over generations through deep-rooted control of physical assets and financial institutions within the Brazilian economy. Saverin’s wealth, by contrast, is a product of the digital age. It was generated in less than a decade through a minority stake in a disruptive technology company based thousands of miles away.
His ascent reflects a global economic shift where intellectual property, network effects, and digital platforms can create wealth at a speed and scale previously unimaginable. He represents a new archetype of Brazilian billionaire—one whose fortune is not tied to the country’s natural resources or domestic consumer markets, but to the borderless world of global technology.
In conclusion, Eduardo Saverin’s story is a masterclass in modern wealth creation. It is a narrative defined by a single, visionary investment, a dramatic corporate fallout, and savvy, if controversial, financial planning. While his name will forever be linked to the genesis of Facebook, his current work as a venture capitalist and his status as Brazil’s richest person prove that his influence on the global business landscape is far from over. He remains a powerful symbol of how a spark of digital innovation in a college dorm room can ignite a multi-billion-dollar, globe-spanning financial legacy.
