The world’s 50 richest have lost US$563 billion this year, a theoretical wealth loss that exceeds Sweden’s gross domestic product, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The world’s 50 richest people, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, saw their fortunes evaporate by more than the market capitalizations of nearly every company in the S&P 500.
Tesla Chairman Elon Musk, considered the world’s richest man, has a net worth of $201 billion, but has lost $69.1 billion on paper as he plans to buy the social network Twitter, according to the index unveiled on Sunday.
At US$131 billion, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ net worth plummeted by US$61.1 billion, as Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man and chief executive of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, lost US$55.2 billion of its estimated US$123 billion fortune.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has seen his US$116 billion wealth shrink by US$21.7 billion this year, unlike famed investor Warren Buffett of the Berkshire Hathaway Group, whose portfolio has grown by US$1.2 billion to amount to US$110 billion.
These global fortunes have collapsed as stock markets yoyo, with the Nasdaq falling 26% and the S&P 500 down about 17%, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
The fortunes of the world’s multi-billionaires grew more in the first two years of the pandemic than between 1987 and 2010, according to the same report, which states that their total wealth is equivalent to 13.9% of global GDP, or three times more. than in 2000.