Meta's shareholders are paying dearly for its spending on the metaverse: The Facebook parent’s market value has collapsed by a whopping $677 billion this year, forcing it out from the ranks of the world’s 20 largest companies. Meta’s stock is down as much as 25 per cent after it spooked investors with ballooning costs to fund its version of virtual reality and a decline in revenue.

Meta was the sixth biggest US company by market capitalisation at the start of the year, flirting with a $1 trillion market value. Just 10 months later and the stock will be worth about $258 billion, ranking it 26th. 

Brokers are rumoured to be turning on the company. At least three investment banks -- Morgan Stanley, Cowen and KeyBanc Capital Markets -- cut their rating on the stock after the company gave a disappointing quarterly revenue outlook.

It has been an annus horribilis for Zuckerburg. In February the company value plunged 26 per cent on the back of woeful earnings results, and erased about $251 billion in market value. That’s the biggest wipeout in market value for any US company ever.

Meta announced its shift to investing in virtual reality a year ago, along with a name change of the company from Facebook Inc. to Meta Platforms. The company said Wednesday it expects total expenses for this year to be $85 billion to $87 billion.

For 2023, that number will grow to an expected $96 billion to $101 billion. That’s the big negative, since investors were hoping Meta would aggressively cut costs, said Neil Campling, an analyst at Mirabaud Securities.