Elon Musk To Jeff Bezos, Richest Billionaires Lose $1.4 Trillion in Worst Half Ever
Elon Musk’s fortune plunged almost $62 billion. Jeff Bezos saw his wealth tumble by about $63 billion. Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth was slashed by more than half. All told, the world’s 500 richest people lost $1.4 trillion in the first half of 2022, a dizzying decline that marks the steepest six-month drop ever for the global billionaire class.
It’s a sharp departure from the previous two years, when the fortunes of the ultra-rich swelled as governments and central banks unleashed unprecedented stimulus measures in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, juicing the value of everything from tech companies to cryptocurrencies.
With policy makers now raising interest rates to combat elevated inflation, some of the highest-flying shares -- and the billionaires who own them -- are losing altitude fast. Tesla Inc. had its worst quarter ever in the three months through June, while Amazon.com Inc. plummeted by the most since the dot-com bubble burst.
Though the losses are piling up for the world’s richest people, it only represents a modest move toward narrowing wealth inequality. Musk, Tesla’s co-founder, still has the biggest fortune on the planet, at $208.5 billion, while Amazon’s Bezos is second with a $129.6 billion net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Bernard Arnault, France’s richest person, ranks third with a $128.7 billion fortune, followed by Bill Gates with $114.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg index. They’re the only four that are worth more than $100 billion -- at the start of the year, 10 people worldwide exceeded that amount, including Zuckerberg, who is now 17th on the wealth list with $60 billion.
Changpeng Zhao, the crypto pioneer who debuted on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in
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