The global stock market slide wiped out billions of dollars from the net worths of the world’s richest people, as stocks tied to the planet’s most valuable companies, and the wealthiest billionaires, suffered the steepest losses.
Jeff Bezos at the 2024 Met Gala.
Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Key Takeaways
- As the total market value of the magnificent seven big American technology companies—Amazon, Apple, Facebook parent Meta, Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla—declined by more than $1 trillion, so did the net worths of the billionaires tied to the artificial intelligence-happy firms.
- Amazon chairman and cofounder Jeff Bezos tallied the largest single-day loss of any billionaire tracked by Forbes’ real-time net worth tracker as shares of the retailer cratered more than 5%, causing Bezos’ fortune to slip by $8 billion to $179 billion by 10:15 a.m. EDT.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was the second-biggest billionaire loser, as shares of his AI semiconductor chip juggernaut cratered about 7%, causing Nvidia’s largest individual shareholder Huang’s fortune to slip by $7.9 billion to $87 billion.
- Next was Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth sank by $7 billion to $164 billion, followed by Oracle chairman Larry Ellison, whose fortune fell by $6 billion to $159 billion, and Tesla CEO and world’s richest man Elon Musk, whose net worth slid by $6 billion to $221 billion as shares in Tesla dove over 5%.
- Billionaires tied to the other magnificent seven companies, who are less involved in daily operations, also registered massive paper losses: Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page both got more than $4 billion poorer, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and Microsoft ex-CEO Steve Ballmer suffered $3 billion and $4 billion losses, respectively, and Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs lost about $580 million.
Key Background
Monday was a bad day for the net worths of many billionaires not tied to the magnificent seven amid the global stock selloff. Legendary investor Warren Buffett lost $4 billion, Europe’s richest man Bernard Arnault grew $3 billion poorer and Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani lost $4 billion as the net worths of many shareholders in public companies, big and small, staggered. Japan’s Nikkei stock index tallied its worst day in nearly 40 years Monday, declining 12%, Europe’s Stoxx 600 fell over 2% and the U.S.’ S&P 500 faltered more than 3% as global concerns about economic growth spiked.
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