Jeff Bezos’s net worth fell by $15.2 billion on Friday. This was part of a huge slump that took away $134 billion from the world’s 500 richest people. Amazon’s shares dropped by 8.8%. This brought Bezos’s net worth down to $191.5 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This drop was the third worst for Bezos as his divorce settlement in April 2019 and a big share plunge in April 2022 were his first and second worst drops. Due to this, the World’s richest lose $134 billion in stock slump.
Tech Billionaires Hit Hard
The Nasdaq 100 Index fell by 2.4% and this drop affected other tech billionaires too as Elon Musk and Larry Ellison of Oracle saw their net worths fall by $6.6 billion and $4.4 billion respectively. Investors were worried about possible Federal Reserve rate cuts and some disappointing earnings reports. This pushed the tech-heavy index into correction territory and Over $2 trillion in value was lost in just three weeks.
Investors are also nervous about this year’s gains from AI being too much or the market being too focused. Amazon’s shares dropped the most since April 2022 which have led to World’s richest lose $134 billion. This happened after the company said it would keep spending big on AI even if it meant less short-term profit.
Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Larry Page each lost over $3 billion. Their losses came as shares of Meta and Alphabet fell. In total tech billionaires lost $68 billion according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.
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Bezos’s Stock Sales
Jeff Bezos who is 60 years old has been selling Amazon shares this year. He sold about $8.5 billion worth of stock over nine days in February. Last month he planned to sell 25 million more shares worth $5 billion. These sales would bring his total for the year to about $13.5 billion. He would still own nearly 912 million shares or about 8.8% of Amazon after these sales.
World’s richest lose $134 billion in a stock slump including Jeff Bezos shows how volatile the market can be. The tech sector in particular has seen huge losses. This has affected not just Bezos but many other top billionaires. The world’s richest losing $134 billion in one day is a reminder of the risks in the stock market.
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