YouTube creator Markiplier doesn’t like GoPro’s plans to merge with an optical transceiver company, though he stands to get a $15 million check from the deal.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m disappointed,” he told Business Insider. “I would vote against the deal.”
Markiplier, whose real name is Mark Fischbach, runs a YouTube channel with nearly 40 million subscribers. He’s also a filmmaker who wrote, directed, and starred in the early 2026 box-office hit “Iron Lung.”
A self-described lens obsessive, his stake in GoPro reached 8.5% in July. He said he built his position after learning GoPro was introducing a new camera with capabilities similar to those of a professional cinema product. He became GoPro’s largest external shareholder and sparked a meme-stock rally when he did an interview with Bloomberg about his investment in August.
Days after the interview, GoPro announced plans to merge with Starman Optical. Should the deal go through, Markiplier would receive a cash payment of around $15 million ($1.14 for each of his 13.5 million shares), according to the merger terms. Existing shareholders would also retain about 10% of the company after the deal.
If Markiplier bought all of his GoPro shares on July 13, the day he hit 8.5% ownership, his profit from the cash payout would be around $5 million. His potential profit may be smaller if he accumulated some of those shares earlier, when the stock price was higher. Fischbach did not respond to a request for more information on how much he would take home from the proposed merger.
GoPro’s stock closed at $1.42 per share on Wednesday.
Despite a potential windfall, Fischbach said he’s worried the company will lose its camera focus and move into optical connectors for AI data centers or other unrelated business lines flagged in the merger announcement.
“I want this camera company to succeed,” he said.
A GoPro spokesperson said the company plans to continue investing in consumer and professional cameras, pointing to a September 3 letter from founder and CEO Nick Woodman, in which he wrote that making cameras was part of the company’s “core DNA and reason for being.”
As of May, Woodman had about 62% voting power over the company, meaning his support for the Starman merger would override objections from other shareholders.
Markiplier is part of a growing class of YouTube millionaires who are turning to investing to build wealth. Content creators, like Hollywood celebrities, can inspire hype for a company or stock simply by talking about it.
YouTuber Logan Paul helped drum up interest in buying Pokémon cards last year after posting about his rare Pikachu card, for example. Snap’s stock price fell in 2018 after Kylie Jenner posted on social media that she didn’t open Snapchat anymore. Some influencers have come under scrutiny for hyping volatile assets like crypto coins.
“I knew that there would be some people that would want to invest as soon as they found out that I was,” Fischbach said of his GoPro stake.
“I was trying to be very cognizant of that,” he added, and said he “never wanted to be in the position where people could think that I was manipulating in any way.”
Markiplier’s wild stock market adventure
When Markiplier became GoPro’s largest external shareholder in July, he said he didn’t immediately realize he needed to file a disclosure form with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“It’s not something where you get an email when you’re like, ‘You own more than 5%, you need to do a filing,'” he said. “You actually have to just look at the outstanding shares and just do a calculation on your own.”
Passive investors who cross 5% ownership in a company are obligated to file with the SEC within five business days. Markiplier’s filing, which is dated August 20, says he crossed the 5% threshold on July 13.
His investment didn’t become widely known until August 30, when his interview with Bloomberg was published.
“I just knew that when word got out, it would probably have an effect, but I didn’t know it would have that dramatic of an effect,” Fischbach said of the stock rally that followed. He said he didn’t want to “pump the stock,” and that he hasn’t sold his shares.
The speedy escalation of events, from his July investment to GoPro’s September merger announcement, led some internet commentators to question his level of involvement with the company, particularly after he posted a sponsored video for GoPro in late August. (He later added a disclosure in the video’s description, saying he was GoPro’s “largest shareholder.”)
“I have thick skin about certain things, and I understand that the nuance can be lost,” he said. “I have no influence on the company. And to put it out there, I had no idea that this merger was happening, especially considering the way that it turned out.”
What’s next for Markiplier
After releasing a movie earlier this year and becoming a main character in a meme-stock roller coaster, Fischbach said he’s taking a step back to plan his next project.
As an investor, he’s interested in companies that solve problems he’s encountered as a content creator and filmmaker. Beyond GoPro, he recently invested in the video-editing data storage company Strada, for example.
“I try not to make investments in things that I don’t understand,” he said, adding that he looks for companies that are “trying to make an impact so that more people can be creative.”
He’s also beginning to think about his next project, though he said he’s taking a moment to recover from all the work that went into “Iron Lung.”
“I’m exhausted, but also I am very eager to get back into it,” he said. “I’m trying to take it one day at a time, but the to-do list piles up really quickly.”
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