Collectively, it has been reported that the world’s five richest technology tycoons have lost around $85 billion of their wealth since the start of 2022. And with the technology sell off last week, their fortunes took a big hit.
At the start of the year, Elon Musk’s fortune was around $270 billion, now in last full week of January 2022, it has taken a $32.9 billion hit down to $237 billion according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. And its also reported that Musk’s wealth is a $100 billion dollars lower than it was November 2021, when his net worth topped at $335 billion.
Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest human being and Amazon’s founder has lost around $27.4 billion in 2022.
Bill Gates co-founder of Microsoft and a huge philanthropist has also seen about a $11.4 billion decrease in his net worth since January 1, 2022.
Google’s co-founder Larry Page has seen a decrease of around $14.6 billion in his net worth.
Meta’s founder Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth dropped about $13.2 billion this year.
Technology stocks has taken a beating in January 2022. The Nasdaq Composite which is mostly tech-stock heavy fell about 8% this year. This decrease is occurring amidst concerns including the Fed intent to raise tax rates which will make money cost more borrow and the worst inflation rate America has seen since 1982. The Nasdaq overall is down about 13%.
The raise in tax rates may cause a slow down in the real estate market which is good for the average person trying to buy homes. With money costing more to borrow, this may ease institutional investors buying up homes for more than market value which has caused such an increase in home values lately.
This inflation hike America has seen recently, however, is a killer to the buying power of the average person despite making more dollars. Almost 80% of American companies budget for pay raises of only 3-4% annually. This inflation hike of 7% so far is going to make pay raises feel like pay cuts in buying power. Also many consumer good companies reported they will be raising the cost of certain consumer goods by 20 to 30%. Ouch!
Now interesting enough despite the five wealthiest people losing wealth this downturn this past week, Bernard Arnault who is the chairman and CEO of French luxury giant LVMH (Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton Societe Europeenne (MC.PA)) did not see a loss this past market sell off last week. I guess even in a downturn we love our liquor and our fashion.
As of today, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the top six billionaires and their year to date net worth change is as follows:
Elon Musk $237B. YTD Change: -$32.9B
Jeff Bezos $175B. YTD Change - $27.4B
Bernard Arnault $157B YTD Change - $21.0B
Bill Gates $127B. YTD Change $11.4B
Larry Page $114B. YTD Change $14.6B
Mark Zuckerberg $112B. YTD Change $13.2B
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index is a ranking that is released daily of the world’s richest people. The calculations are provided in the net worth analysis of each billionaires profile page and the numbers are updated at the close of each trading day in New York.
Despite the poor performance of their net worth to date, these men
are still VERY RICH.