They lost $413 billion this year
Tech moguls’ vast wealth dropped as growth slowed
Tech billionaires have lost hundreds of billions of dollars this year as stocks slid and many companies slowed their decadelong streak of constant growth.
It’s been a dreary year for tech stocks — and also for the massive wealth buckets of the executives and founders whose net worths are so closely tied to their company’s fortunes.
But the billionaires are far from destitute. And several of the billionaires are actually worth more than they were in 2019, as the market’s accelerated growth during the early phase of the pandemic padded their portfolios before their wealth plunges this year.
But some of the most significant drops have hit tech moguls. See how much several tech leaders lost this year:
Elon Musk
Total loss: $132 billion; Current net worth: $139 billion
Elon Musk lost $132 billion in net worth this year, a loss that exceeds the fortunes of each of the other wealthy men on this list.
The chief executive of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter was the richest person in the world for much of this year. But Musk, who holds much of his wealth in Tesla shares, lost that crown as Tesla stock spiraled downward, plunging nearly 70 percent throughout the year.
Jeff Bezos
Total loss: $84.1 billion; Current net worth: $108 billion
Jeff Bezos lost $84.1 billion this year as tech stocks tumbled from their stratospheric heights and Amazon shares plunged nearly 50 percent, marking one of its worst years ever on the market.
The founder and chairman of Amazon stepped down from his role as chief executive last year, but he remains its largest shareholder.
Amazon grappled with high inflation and slowing growth, as the huge bump in sales it experienced during the coronavirus pandemic waned this year.
Mark Zuckerberg
Total loss: $80.7 billion; Current net worth: $44.8 billion
Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth plunged nearly $81 billion this year. The Facebook founder slid from the sixth-richest person at the end of last year to No. 25, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
It’s been a trying year for Facebook, which announced it was changing the name of its parent company to Meta last year. Zuckerberg, who still leads the company he founded as a college student, has orchestrated the company’s shift to focus more on the metaverse, a take on an interconnected digital world.
Larry Page
Total loss: $44.6 billion; Current net worth: $83.8 billion
Sergey Brin
Total loss: $43.4 billion; Current net worth: $80.2 billion Sergey Brin and Larry Page lost a collective $88 billion this year. The founders of Google and current board members of parent company Alphabet stepped away from their executive roles in 2019, but they still hold major sway over the business through a special class of voting shares.
In a punishing year for digital advertising, even industry giants such as Alphabet have not been spared. Alphabet has slowed its hiring and has shuttered its cloud streaming service for video games, Stadia.
Bill Gates
Total loss: $28.7 billion; Current net worth: $109 billion The entrepreneur, philanthropist, and cofounder of Microsoft lost nearly $29 billion in 2022. Gates’s roughly 20 percent fall nearly matches the decline of the S&P 500 this year, meaning the billionaire’s losses have largely tracked with a broad barometer for the overall market and a gauge of the economy. In fact, he beat the Nasdaq composite index.