Mark Zuckerberg’s foray into the metaverse has cost him heavily. Even in a difficult year for nearly every US tech titan, the wealth wiped out from Meta Platforms Inc. stands out. His fortune has been slashed in half and then some, with a $71 billion reduction so far this year, the largest among the ultra-rich tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth of $55.9 billion places him 20th among global billionaires, his lowest position since 2014. It was less than two years ago that Zuckerberg, 38, was worth $106 billion and was part of an elite group of global billionaires that included only Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.