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Mark Zuckerberg and his college-sweetheart wife Priscilla Chan are worth billions — see their houses, cars, and travels

Mark Zuckerberg devotes a lot of his wealth to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, but he also splurges on real estate.

  • Zuckerberg drives a cheap car and wears basic clothes, but appears to splurge on real estate.
  • Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are generous philanthropists, investing billions in childhood education and medical research.
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Mark Zuckerberg, the 33-year-old founder and CEO of Facebook, has a net worth just shy of $70 billion, according to Forbes.

His fortune is down about $5 billion after Cambridge Analytica, a controversial political research company with links to Donald Trump, had accessed 50 million Facebook user profiles illegitimately, reported Business Insider's Shona Ghosh.

Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica from its platform but is under huge political pressure to explain how it can stop third parties from abusing its massive data trove, Ghosh wrote. Facebook's stock fell nearly 7% on Monday morning, affecting the nearly 400 million Facebook shares Zuckerberg holds, according to MONEY.

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Now Zuckerberg is the sixth-richest person in the world, but it seems he doesn't have a taste for opulence, especially when it comes to cars, clothes, and travel.

As a member of the Giving Pledge and cofounder of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which he started with his wife and college sweetheart, Priscilla Chan, the Harvard dropout has dedicated much of his fortune to charitable causes.

Keep reading to find out exactly how Zuckerberg and Chan spend their billions.

In May 2012, eight years after its founding, Facebook debuted on the New York Stock Exchange. At the time, it was the biggest technology IPO in history.

Each year since the IPO, Zuckerberg has added an average of $9 billion to his net worth.

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Despite his status as one of the richest tech moguls, the Harvard dropout leads a low-key lifestyle with his wife, Priscilla Chan, and their two young daughters.

Like many other Silicon Valley stalwarts, Zuckerberg favors a uniform. Though casual in appearance, his signature gray T-shirts and hoodies are designed by luxury brands and are reportedly much more expensive than they look, retailing for hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

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Zuckerberg is known for driving relatively inexpensive cars. He's been seen in an Acura TSX, a Volkswagen hatchback, and a Honda Fit, all of which are valued at or under $30,000.

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There's one thing Zuckerberg doesn't seem to mind splurging on: real estate. In May 2011, he bought a 5,000-square-foot home — which he's since tricked out with a "custom-made artificially intelligent assistant" — in Palo Alto for $7 million.

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The next year, Zuckerberg began buying the properties surrounding his home, spending more than $30 million to acquire four homes, with plans to level them and rebuild.

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He also owns a townhouse in the Mission District of San Francisco. He bought the 5,500-square-foot home in 2013 and proceeded to make over $1 million in renovations, including adding a greenhouse and remodeling the kitchen.

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In 2014, the billionaire's real-estate portfolio jumped the Pacific when he spent $100 million on two properties on the island of Kauai: the Kahu'aina Plantation, a 357-acre former sugarcane plantation, and Pila'a Beach, a 393-acre property with a white-sand beach.

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Zuckerberg said he and Chan bought the land because they're "dedicated to preserving its natural beauty."

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Zuckerberg doesn't appear to travel much for pleasure. But when he does travel, Facebook foots the bill. Zuckerberg's security detail and transportation cost the company nearly $5 million in 2015.

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It's likely the costs were much higher in 2017, after Zuckerberg spent the summer traversing America as part of his personal goal to visit every US state in a year.

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On his whirlwind tour, the CEO dined with a family at their home in Ohio, met with former opioid addicts, worked on an assembly line at a Ford factory, met with members of the military, and even fed a calf.

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Zuckerberg shared photos on Facebook of his experiences in America's heartland, and he seemed right at home. Ultimately, opulence and luxury are just a blip on Zuckerberg's radar. In fact, his main priority is giving his money away, rather than spending it.

Zuckerberg is a member of the Giving Pledge, joining Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and over 100 other billionaires vowing to donate the majority their wealth to philanthropy. He plans to sell 99% of his Facebook shares during his lifetime.

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Zuckerberg has complete control over Facebook's future, thanks to his majority voting rights. Facebook's stock price rose over 50% from April 2016 to September 2017, and Zuckerberg said he plans to accelerate selling shares to fund The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

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Zuckerberg said in September 2017 that he planned to sell 35 to 75 million shares over the next 18 months, totaling between $6 billion and $12 billion.

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Some of his Facebook shares will go toward the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic organization he founded with his wife in 2015 focused on "personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people, and building strong communities."

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The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is tackling both local and global issues. In 2016 Zuckerberg and Chan invested $3 billion into research focused on curing the world's diseases by the end of the century.

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In 2017, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative partnered with housing startup Landed, giving $5 million to help at least 60 teachers in Redwood City and East Palo Alto, California, purchase real estate.

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