Bloomberg reported that the world’s richest billionaires lost $1.4 trillion during the first half of this year, the largest semi-annual loss ever.
The agency reported that Elon Musk’s fortune fell by $62 billion, Jeff Bezos’ fortune decreased by $63 billion, and Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth fell by more than half ($65.5 billion).
She stated that the world’s 500 richest people lost $1.4 trillion in the first half of 2022, a staggering drop that represents the largest six-month decline ever for the global billionaire category.
And “Bloomberg” indicated that this sharp decline occurred after wealth swelled during the previous two years, as governments and central banks launched unprecedented stimulus measures in the wake of the Corona pandemic, which led to an increase in the value of all assets from technology companies to cryptocurrencies.
The report pointed out that the central banks’ decision to raise interest rates to combat inflation led to a decline in the stock prices of most international companies, and consequently to a rapid decline in the wealth of billionaires who own huge stakes in them.
In the context, he stated that the price of Tesla shares witnessed the worst quarterly performance during the second quarter of 2022, but the largest shareholder in it, Elon Musk, is still the richest man in the world, with a fortune estimated at about $208.5 billion, and Jeff Bezos immediately after him, with a fortune of $129.6 billion. Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In third place was the billionaire Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, owner of “Louis Vuitton”, with a fortune of 128.7 billion dollars, and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, with a fortune of 114.8 billion dollars.
At the beginning of this year, these four rich people each owned more than $100 billion and occupied the first four positions on the list of world billionaires, but only the founder of “Facebook” was the one whose fortune fell to $60 billion at the end of the first half of this year, to drop his ranking to the center. 17 currently.
As for Changping Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, who appeared on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in January with an estimated fortune of $96 billion, his fortune fell by $80 billion amid the turmoil in digital assets, recording the highest losses among the world’s richest people.