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by Prabhjeet
The world's five wealthiest tech magnates have collectively lost almost $85 billion in the first few weeks of 2022, with last week's market sell-off wreaking havoc on their fortunes.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the world's richest person, Elon Musk, now has a net worth of $243 billion, down $27 billion from the start of the year. Musk's net worth is also over $100 billion lower than it was in November when it peaked at $335 billion.
In 2022, Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, the world's second-richest person, lost around $25 billion.
According to the Bloomberg index, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates' net worth has dropped by $9.5 billion since January 1, while Google co-founder Larry Page's net worth has dropped by $12 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has seen his net worth plummet by nearly $12 billion this year.
Each of the five had losses in their tech stock investments. The Nasdaq Composite Index, which is heavily weighted in technology, sank roughly 8 percent last week as a result of many concerns, including rising interest rates and inflation. This year, the Nasdaq has lost nearly 13 percent of its value.
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Cryptocurrency has also been hit hard by the market's huge downturn.
Despite being designed to be immune to the ills of traditional investment, such as inflation, crypto investors are alarmed by the stock market's recent decline.
It provoked a panicky global sell-off that saw the market lose a total of $1.4 trillion in only two months from its peak of $3 trillion last November.
Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has seen his fortune plummet by $17.7 billion in the last few days.
According to Bloomberg, Bernard Arnault, the chairman, and CEO of the French luxury conglomerate LVMH, was the only one of the world's five wealthiest persons who did not lose money last week. Despite this, Arnault's fortune has plummeted by $10.5 billion this year, as LVMH shares have fallen 5 percent amid a broader market downturn.
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