The collapse of US tech giants in 2022 cost the world’s richest men billions of dollars.
Elon Musk
South African Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and SpaceX, long considered the richest person in the world, was eliminated from the list by French luxury entrepreneur Bernard Arnault.
According to Bloomberg’s ranking of billionaires, Musk has lost $140 billion since January. Despite this, his fortune is 130 billion dollars.
This spectacular drop is mainly due to Tesla’s collapse on Wall Street (-69% on Dec. 28).
Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla was once a favorite of investors. But its shares have fallen since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion at the end of October.
The decisions Musk made after taking over the social network sparked controversy, such as the dismissal of half of the company’s employees or the reopening of former US President Donald Trump’s account, which was closed for incitement to violence.
Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stepped up his efforts to promote the metaverse, the virtual world presented by his supporters as the future of the internet.
However, investors weren’t tempted by the metaverse, as evidenced by the falling share price of Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta, which has lost 66% of its share value since the start of the year.
Zuckerberg’s fortune fell by $81 billion to $44.4 billion.
Meta, the company behind Facebook, which is heavily dependent on ad revenue, has also suffered from global inflation and increased competition.
Jeff Bezos
Since Jeff Bezos left Amazon’s general management in July 2021, he has devoted most of his time with his company, Blue Origin, to space exploration.
However, his wealth remains strongly linked to the value of online commerce giant Amazon’s shares, which fell more than 49% in 2022.
Amazon chairman Bezos has lost more than $86 billion this year. His fortune is estimated at 106 billion dollars.
The 58-year-old businessman, who also owns The Washington Post, told CNN in November that he plans to donate most of his assets to charities.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Google’s two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have no longer run the company since 2019, when they stepped down from their executive positions at Alphabet, their parent company, which also includes YouTube and email service Gmail.
However, they sit on the board of directors where they are Alphabet’s largest individual shareholder.
The 39% drop since January in Alphabet shares, which slashed ad revenue and battled rivals like TikTok, affected the fates of both men. Page’s dropped $46.1 billion and Brin’s $44.8 billion.
But they are still among the richest people in the world: Page 10th at $82.3 billion and Brin 11th at $78.8 billion.
Zhang Yiming
Chinese billionaire Zhang Yiming is an exception to the technological disaster.
Owner of TikTok, ByteDance, his fortune increased by $10.4 billion to $55 billion in 2022. This made him the 23rd richest person in the world.
However, TikTok is targeted by US officials who are concerned about possible links between the popular video app and the Chinese government.
President Joe Biden’s administration has banned TikTok from being installed on federal employees’ phones and could force ByteDance to sell the US version of the app.
© Agence France-Presse
source: Noticias
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.