Mark Zuckerberg celebrates 40th birthday with lavish nostalgia party

Mark Zuckerberg has celebrated turning 40 with recreations of places he lived when he was younger.

The Facebook founder shared rare photos of his family and friends at the party on Instagram, for which he said his wife Priscilla Chan “recreated a bunch of places I lived in the early days”.

One of the pictures showed him sitting next to Bill Gates in a miniature version of the Harvard dorm where the Meta billionaire created Facebook.

Gates, who is smiling into the camera, is sitting on a tiny red sofa while Zuckerberg is perched on a small wooden chair.

Another image showed the father-of-three with his daughters Maxima, 8, and August, 6, as he is showing them around the recreation of his childhood bedroom where he learned to code.

Chan also had a cubicle at his party representing her husband’s first apartment, where he said he lived with just a mattress on the floor until Facebook reached 100 million people.

In another picture, Zuckerberg can be seen in a booth resembling his office during a lockdown “where we worked day and night to fight off competitors”, Zuckerberg wrote in the caption.

Food at Zuckerberg’s party also came with a wave of nostalgia, as his wife recreated Pinocchio’s Pizzeria, where the tech mogul said he “basically lived in college”.

“Grateful that people traveled from all around the world to celebrate with me,” Zuckerberg captioned one photo, which showed him sharing a drink with friends at the party.

He captioned the carousel with his birthday pictures with: “Grateful for my first 40 years!”

Zuckerberg wore a t-shirt with a print saying, Carthage Must Be Destroyed, which is in reference to a — now closed — restaurant in Brooklyn.

Many of his friends also made a video to congratulate Zuckerberg, including his good friend Sheryl Sandberg, who used to be the COO of Meta.

His wife also appeared in the video and took to Instagram to mark Zuckerberg’s 40th birthday, writing: “Mark doesn’t usually let me go big for his birthday but for his 40th I was allowed to throw a bash as long our friends and family also roasted him.

“We all had a blast! Let’s just say that no one suffered from a lack of material!

“Jokes aside, as I reflect on the 21 of Mark’s birthdays we have spent together, one of my favorite things about Mark is how he really, truly believes in people.

“He sees the potential in all of us. I have no idea what adventures are coming next, but I’m here for all of them. Here’s to many more.”

The video included several childhood pictures of Zuckerberg as well as images of him drinking from a red cup, at his college graduation, at one of his daughter’s birthdays and shirtless with MMA fighters.

A famous friend congratulating Zuckerberg in the video is Vin Diesel, who smiled as he said: “Hey Mark. 40 years old...“

The video included an old clip of Chan, in which she said: “Huge red flag. This guy is not doing his homework? He’s not going to amount to anything.”

Sandberg said: “Can’t believe you’re only 40. Most accomplished 40-year-old ever and best friend ever.”

Another friend, Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, said: “Turning 40 is an amazing thing except for all the physical things that happen to you.

“In my case, eyesight, shoulder injury, elbow injury... I’m sure you will do better.”

Another said: “You don’t look a day over 25 and I bet you don’t feel like it either.”