After strong gains in the previous two years, the tech moguls’ net worth has taken a real nosedive this year. Magnates like Zuckerberg, Musk and Bezos are billions poorer. But there are also winners.
Billionaires have had a pitch-black year. Collectively, the world‘s super-rich are almost $2 trillion poorer than they were at the beginning of the year. No one has been hit harder than the world‘s 300 or so tech billionaires, whose wealth is estimated to have shrunk by more than $1 trillion in 2022.
Tech luminaries like Steve Ballmer, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Larry Page or Mark Zuckerberg still not. Despite the devastating losses, they are anything but destitute and remain among the richest people on the planet.
Metaverse everything other than “mega”
Facebook founder Zuckerberg, for example, who was once one of the ten richest people in the world, has lost almost $81 billion in net worth this year. But it’s still worth around $45 billion, surpassing Iceland’s gross domestic product, according to the US daily «Washington Post» reported.
However, the CEO of Meta Platforms has seen the largest percentage decline in wealth among tech moguls. His net worth shrank by 64 percent. Apparently, his plans for the Metaverse did not convince the shareholders, many investors seem to classify the “virtual” ambitions as an unprecedented capital destruction machine.
Tesla-Chef entzaubert
Meanwhile, of the “Magnificent Seven,” Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, has seen the largest decline in wealth in absolute terms. Its value fell by $132 billion, a drop of around 49 percent. He has about as much money left as he lost – $139 billion. He was also pushed from the throne of the richest person. The crown has now Bernard Arnault set up with his luxury empire LVMH. His fortune is estimated at around $181 billion.
Amazon founder Bezos saw the second-biggest drop in net worth, down $84.1 billion. In percentage terms, however, he did better than Musk or Zuckerberg. His wealth fell just 44 percent to $108 billion.
Past Microsoft captains hold up better
Google founders Brin and Page, meanwhile, lost $43.4 billion and $44.6 billion in wealth, respectively. For both, the casket decreased by about 35 percent; Brin is now worth $80.2 billion and Page is about $83.8 billion.
The two former Microsoft executives Gates and Ballmer have held up comparatively well. While Microsoft founder Gates ended 2022 around $28.7 billion or around 21 percent lighter to $109 billion, the former CEO lost $20.2 billion or around 19 percent to $85.5 billion.
The music is playing on TikTok
Even if tech magnates were generally on the losing side, 2022 also produced isolated winners. This is how the Chinese Internet entrepreneur increased Zhang Yimingfounder of TikTok parent company ByteDance, increased his fortune by more than $10 billion to nearly $55 billion.