Billionaires battered by tech wreck
. . . but they’re still among wealthiest on the planet
THE American ‘tech wreck’ wiped more than £80bn off the fortunes of Silicon Valley’s richest entrepreneurs.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin saw their riches hammered as their companies plunged in value.
Warren Buffett, the famous investor, was also caught out after piling into iPhone maker Apple.
The biggest loser was Bezos, whose fortune fell by a staggering £ 34bn from highs last month, according to Bloomberg’s billionaires index. But he was still worth around £98bn.
Zuckerberg’s cash pile from a high in July, plunged £27bn to about £41bn this week as shares were hit by sluggish user growth and fears of tougher regulation.
Microsoft founder Gates’s fortune dipped by around £5bn from highs last month to £73bn and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, saw their combined wealth fall by £16bn from July to just under £79bn.
The tumble in fortunes came amid signs the decadelong bull run in US markets could be starting to falter despite producing aweinspiring wealth for a handful of founders.
Yesterday, tech shares started to recover slightly, with shares in the so-called ‘FAANG’ stock – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google- owner Alphabet – bouncing back.
That helped lift the fortunes of Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, Page and Brin.
But at one point this week the FAANGs had shed a combined trillion dollars in value since their highs this year. Investors have been spooked by the prospect of tougher regulation, higher taxes and growth forecasts that were lower than expected.
Apple, in particular, has been hit by concerns that its latest iPhone model isn’t selling strongly.
Buffett, who has been increasing his stake in Apple, has lost around £5bn since his fortune hit highs earlier this year but is still worth nearly £70bn.
Many traders are now considering whether to snap up tech shares while they are cheaper in expectation they could recover, known as ‘buying the dip’.