Friday’s stock market crash, led by Amazon, wiped out $134 billion in the world’s 500 richest people’s fortunes overnight.
The Nasdaq 100 Index fell 2.4% on Friday, wiping at least $1 billion off the net worth of the world’s 10 richest people — at least on paper. The index is down more than 10% from its recent high.
Tech billionaires alone, who make up the majority of the world’s richest people, lost a combined $68 billion in their fortunes. Bloomberg The math: Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Larry Page each said goodbye to more than $3 billion in fortunes on Friday.
Elon Musk’s net worth fell from $252 billion on July 31 to $235 billion on August 2. Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Meanwhile, Oracle’s Larry Ellison saw his net worth grow by $3 billion overnight, then lost all of his gains the next day, then another $3 billion.
Meanwhile, when Amazon’s stock price fell nearly 9% in a single day on August 2, founder Jeff Bezos lost nearly $16 billion in his fortune.
Notably, this is Bezos’ third worst loss, having previously lost $36 billion after his divorce settlement in April 2019. His net worth is now around $191 billion.
The world’s second-richest man has been steadily selling off Amazon shares this year: The 60-year-old sold about $8.5 billion worth of stock over nine trading days in February and recently disclosed plans to sell another 25 million shares, worth $5 billion.
Why did US tech stocks plummet?
In short, uncertainty surrounding AI, interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, a potential economic recession, and disappointing high-profile earnings estimates all contributed to pushing the tech-heavy index into correction territory.
The recession was announced by Amazon. Earnings Report The company’s profits will take a back seat as it plans to invest heavily in AI, which has investors worried that AI benefits are overvalued, sending Amazon’s shares down 14%, its biggest drop since April 2022.
At the same time, Microsoft Posts The company expects growth in its Azure cloud computing division to slow and that it will continue to invest heavily in data centers. Revenue Forecast Alphabet’s YouTube ad revenue fell short of expectations in the second quarter.
Additionally, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy created about 61,000 fewer jobs last month than expected.
Moreover, the unemployment rate hit 4.3%, the highest level since October 2021, raising concerns that a recession is looming.
