World's richest, led by Bezos, lose $134B in stock slump
What's the story
The world's wealthiest individuals, led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, have experienced a significant decrease in their net worth due to a widespread stock market sell-off.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the collective wealth of the world's 500 richest people dropped by $134 billion yesterday.
Bezos alone saw his net worth shrink by $15.2 billion, marking his third largest financial setback.
Financial impact
Bezos's net worth drops to $191.5 billion
The stock market downturn has reduced Bezos's net worth to $191.5 billion, following an 8.8% drop in Amazon shares on Friday - the largest since April 2022.
This decline was triggered by Amazon's announcement of its continued heavy investment in artificial intelligence (AI), despite potential short-term profit impacts.
The news has sparked investor concerns about overvaluation of this year's AI-driven gains and market concentration risk.
Market fallout
Tech billionaires' wealth takes a hit
The NASDAQ 100 Index, heavily influenced by technology stocks, also fell by 2.4%, impacting other tech billionaires like Musk and Oracle's Larry Ellison.
Their net worths were reduced by $6.6 billion and $4.4 billion respectively, due to market uncertainty over potential Federal Reserve rate cuts and disappointing earnings reports from high-profile companies.
The index has lost over $2 trillion in value in just over three weeks, pushing it into correction territory.
Tech losses
Tech tycoons lose $68 billion
Other tech billionaires including Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page also felt the impact of the stock market downturn.
Each lost over $3 billion yesterday, as shares of Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet fell in New York trading.
In total, tech tycoons saw $68 billion cut from their fortunes according to Bloomberg's wealth index.