When you think about who was the owner of Facebook, your brain probably goes straight to Mark Zuckerberg. You’re not wrong, obviously. He’s the face of the company, the guy who survived a dozen congressional hearings, and the one currently obsessed with the metaverse. But if you look back at that sweaty dorm room in Kirkland House in 2004, the "owner" wasn't just one person. It was a messy, legally complicated collective of college kids who had no idea they were building a trillion-dollar empire.
Honestly, the story of Facebook’s ownership is more like a corporate thriller than a tech success story. It involves late-night coding sessions, betrayal, massive dilution of shares, and enough lawsuits to keep a law firm busy for a decade.
The Original 2004 Squad
In the very beginning, Facebook (then called "TheFacebook") was basically a group project that got wildly out of hand. Mark Zuckerberg was the primary coder, but he wasn't doing it alone.
By February 2004, the ownership was split among five guys:
- Mark Zuckerberg: The lead programmer and visionary.
- Eduardo Saverin: The "business guy" who provided the initial $15,000 for servers.
- Dustin Moskovitz: The workhorse programmer who helped scale the site.
- Andrew McCollum: The graphic artist who designed that original, weird blue logo.
- Chris Hughes: The unofficial spokesperson and PR guy.
At the start, equity was informal. Zuckerberg held about 65%, Saverin had 30%, and the others shared the remaining 5%. It felt fair at the time. Saverin paid the bills, Zuckerberg wrote the code. Simple, right? Not really.
Why Eduardo Saverin Isn't the Owner Anymore
If you’ve seen The Social Network, you know this part of the story is brutal. As the site exploded and moved to Palo Alto, Zuckerberg met Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster. Parker saw something in Facebook that Saverin seemingly didn't. He saw a global behemoth.
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The relationship between Zuckerberg and Saverin soured fast. Saverin stayed in New York to find advertisers while the rest of the team moved to California to build the product. In mid-2004, Facebook incorporated in Delaware. During this process, a new share structure was created.
Basically, the company issued millions of new shares. Everyone's stake was protected except for Saverin's. His 30% ownership was effectively nuked, dropping down to less than 5%. He sued, of course. They eventually settled, and while he’s still a billionaire today, he’s no longer a "primary" owner. It was a cold-blooded move that cemented Zuckerberg’s total control.
The First "Adult" Money: Peter Thiel
By the summer of 2004, the kids needed real cash. Enter Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal. He saw the potential and cut a check for $500,000.
This was the first major external investment. Thiel’s money bought him a 10.2% stake in the company and a seat on the board. More importantly, it gave the company "legitimacy." When Thiel invested, the valuation of Facebook was roughly $5 million. Fast forward to 2026, and that number looks like a rounding error.
The Shift from Facebook to Meta Platforms Inc.
The question of who was the owner of Facebook changed forever in 2012 when the company went public (IPO). Once a company is on the stock market, "ownership" becomes a game of millions of people holding tiny pieces of the pie.
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However, Zuckerberg did something very clever. He set up a dual-class share structure.
- Class A Shares: These are what you and I can buy. One share equals one vote.
- Class B Shares: These are held by Zuckerberg and a few insiders. One share equals ten votes.
This is why, even though Mark Zuckerberg only owns about 13.5% of the actual company today, he controls over 61% of the voting power. He can’t be fired. He can’t be outvoted. For all intents and purposes, he is still the owner in the sense that his word is law.
Who owns the rest now?
Since 2021, the company has been known as Meta Platforms Inc. As of early 2026, the ownership is dominated by massive institutional "whale" investors:
- The Vanguard Group: Holds roughly 8.9% of shares.
- BlackRock Inc.: Owns about 7.7%.
- Fidelity (FMR LLC): Holds around 6.2%.
These are the giants that manage your 401k or retirement funds. So, in a weird, roundabout way, if you have a retirement account, you might be a tiny, tiny part-owner of Facebook yourself.
The "Secret" Owners: The Winklevoss Dispute
We can’t talk about who was the owner of Facebook without mentioning Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra. They claimed Zuckerberg stole their idea for a social network called "HarvardConnection."
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While they were never technically owners in the legal sense of holding shares at the start, they won a massive settlement. They walked away with $20 million in cash and a pile of Facebook stock. That stock eventually made them some of the first "Bitcoin billionaires" when they used the money to pivot into crypto.
What This Means for You Today
Understanding the ownership of Meta (Facebook) tells you everything you need to know about why the company acts the way it does. Because Zuckerberg has "absolute" voting control, the company doesn't have to listen to the board of directors or the public the way a normal company does.
When Zuckerberg decides he wants to spend $40 billion on VR headsets and the metaverse, he just does it. Shareholders can complain, but they can't stop him.
Next Steps for Researching Corporate Ownership:
- Check the Proxy Statement: If you want to see exactly how much Zuckerberg owns right now, look for the "Schedule 14A" filing on the SEC's EDGAR database. It lists every major shareholder.
- Monitor Share Classes: When looking at other tech giants like Alphabet (Google) or Snap, always check if they have a dual-class structure. It tells you if the founder is a "king" or just an employee.
- Follow Institutional Moves: Keep an eye on Vanguard and BlackRock’s filings. When they start selling a specific stock, it’s usually a signal that the market's vibe is shifting.