From the very beginning of the current year, the U.S. stock market has tumbled. It didn’t touch ordinary people. But the billionaires lost a lot. Looking at their faces, you will definitely notice signs of dander and sorrow. When talking about the category of such people, we should mention the founders of big tech companies. Recently, Bloomberg reported that the world’s richest man Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates lost a combined $115 billion in net worth.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s fortune has shrunk by $46.4 billion; Bezos’ has shrunk by $53.2 billion; Gates’ by $15.1 billion. When taking into consideration the stock values on Friday, Musk had a net worth of $224 billion, Bezos $139 billion, and Gates $123 billion.
However, these circumstances also mean changes in the ranking. Bernard Arnault, chairman of the French luxury goods group LVMH, is currently the third-richest person in the world. His fortune has shrunk by $44.7 billion to $133 billion since January.
We should also note that these persons have various shares in their firms. For instance, much of Musk’s and Bezos’ fortunes are tied to the shares of Tesla and Amazon, respectively. But Gates’ stake in Microsoft is now relatively small. As for numbers, Musk’s 15.6 percent stake in Tesla, worth about $122 billion, has fallen nearly 37 percent so far this year.
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Richest Men – Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates
In April, Musk bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter. Once this happened, many investors doubted whether he can focus on managing Tesla. This made Tesla shares tumble. Musk has sold $8.4 billion worth of Tesla stock to fund its acquisition.
Gates’ more diversified portfolio has helped him survive the stock market sell-off. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the charitable organization Gates co-founded with his ex-wife, invests primarily in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, whose shares have risen this year by 5%.
But Gates has invested in other niches and companies as well. For instance, he has his own investment firm Cascade Investments. The latter invests in tech companies such as Apple. So one way or another, Bill Gates lost a lot too. This is mainly related to the inflationary pressures and slumping consumer confidence.
Further reading: Jeff Bezos Became The Richest Person With A Record Fortune Of $211 Billion
Bezos currently owns about 50 million shares of Amazon, worth about $115 billion. The stock has lost nearly a third of its value this year, but it still has a market value of nearly $1.2 trillion. Tesla shares are now worth about $786 billion after falling nearly 37%.
