10 Billionaires & How Much They Lost: Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk Lose $149B In One Day
In a single day, Jeff Bezos saw a dramatic $15 billion drop in his wealth, leading to a $134 billion decline among the world’s 500 richest individuals, including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.
Amazon’s stock plummeted 8.8% on Friday, part of a broader market sell-off, according to Bloomberg. This decline reduced Bezos’ net worth to $191.5 billion, largely due to his substantial stake in the company.
Bezos has been actively selling Amazon shares this year, offloading $8.5 billion worth in February and planning to sell an additional $5 billion, which would leave him with 912 million shares, or 8.8% of the stock.
The Nasdaq 100 index fell 2.4%, affecting other tech billionaires. Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms Inc shares dropped 1.9%, resulting in a loss of over $3 billion, while Musk’s net worth of $252 billion decreased by $6.6 billion due to a 4.2% fall in Tesla’s stock.
This $15.2 billion loss for Bezos is his third-largest decrease in wealth, following a $36 billion drop after his 2019 divorce and a 14% decline in Amazon’s shares in April 2022.
The recent Amazon share plunge comes amid the company’s commitment to invest heavily in AI, despite concerns that AI-driven gains this year might be overstated.
Other notable billionaires affected by the Nasdaq’s fall include Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp, whose wealth fell by $4.4 billion, and tech giants Sergey Brin and Larry Page, each losing over $3 billion.
The effects of Friday’s market drop continued into Monday, as global stock markets remained volatile amid fears of a possible US recession and Japan’s worst sell-off since 1987’s Black Monday.
Goldman Sachs has raised its estimate of the US recession risk to 25%, up from 15%, while JP Morgan’s estimate stands at 50%. US stock index futures, particularly those tied to the Nasdaq, fell nearly 4%, with traders anticipating an emergency interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve to mitigate the market crash and avoid a severe recession.
The recent sell-off followed a disappointing unemployment report last week.
Top 10 Billionaires and Their Losses
1. Elon Musk – Tesla: $235 billion, -$6.57 billion
2. Jeff Bezos – Amazon: $191 billion, -$15.2 billion
3. Bernard Arnault – LVMH: $182 billion, -$1.21 billion
4. Mark Zuckerberg – Meta: $174 billion, -$3.39 billion
5. Bill Gates – Microsoft: $155 billion, -$1.95 billion
6. Larry Page – Alphabet (Google): $150 billion, -$3.45 billion
7. Larry Ellison – Oracle: $148 billion, -$4.37 billion
8. Steve Ballmer – Microsoft: $142 billion, -$2.83 billion
9. Sergey Brin – Alphabet (Google): $141 billion, -$3.24 billion
10. Warren Buffett – Berkshire Hathaway: $135 billion, -$1.31 billion
