Tech moguls lost a combined $433B in wealth in 2022 stock market dive

The nation’s tech titans lost an aggregate total of more than $430 billion as shares of their once-hot companies plummeted this year.

Tesla and Twitter boss Elon Musk’s net worth nosedived an eye-watering $132 billion, causing him to lose his title as the world’s richest person.

Musk’s space rival Jeff Bezos lost $84 billion, followed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who wealth fell $81 billion.

Their losses were nearly double those of Google founders Sergey Brin ($44.6 billion) and Larry Page ($43.4 billion). Microsoft founder Bill Gates dropped $29 billion while the company’s former CEO Steve Ballmer lost $20.2 billion.

Musk has seen his net worth drop from a high of $304 billion in January to $139 billion as of Tuesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Most of Musk’s wealth is derived from ownership in Tesla stock, which has been in a freefall along with other blue-chip firms listed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

On Jan. 3, Tesla’s stock cost $400 a share. Since then, the stock price has dropped nearly 70%. As of Tuesday afternoon, Tesla was selling at around $113 a share — down more than 8% from Friday.

Bezos, who relinquished his role as Amazon chief executive last year so he could focus on his space exploration company Blue Origin, ranked as the fifth richest person in the world as of Tuesday.

Bezos’ real-time net worth was valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $108 billion — an impressive number but a little more than half of his all-time high of $214 billion in the summer of last year.

The 58-year-old Bezos owns around 10% of Amazon stock. The online retail giant has seen its stock price fall from $183 a share last year to around $83 a share as of Tuesday.

Zuckerberg was once a fixture among the top seven richest people in the world. These days, however, he is ranked 25th on the list, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zuckerberg, whose net worth was valued at $44.8 billion as of Tuesday, was worth a personal all-time high of $140 billion last year.

Meta has seen the value of its stock dip by more than 65% from the start of this year. As of Tuesday, it was trading at around $117 a share.

The company, which is pivoting from its bread-and-butter business model of relying on advertising on its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, has burned through its cash reserves as part of Zuckerberg’s massive bet on the metaverse.

In late October, Meta announced a drop in revenue for the second consecutive quarter.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-company earned $4.4 billion, or $1.64 per share, in the three-month period that ended Sept. 30. That’s down 52% from, $9.19 billion, or $3.22 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue fell 4% to $27.71 billion from $29.01 billion, slightly higher than the $27.4 billion that analysts had predicted.

Meta’s tech rivals including Google and Microsoft also saw their stock prices slide considerably.

Page and Brin, who are no longer with the company on a day-to-day basis, still own a special class of voting shares. As of Tuesday, Page was the 10th richest person in the world with a net worth of $83.8 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Brin was right behind him in the 11th slot. His net worth was valued at $80.2 billion.

Gates is the fourth richest person in the world. His net worth was valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $109 billion as of Tuesday.

The full-time philanthropist derives most of his wealth from ownership in Microsoft stock. The Windows maker was not immune to the fierce economic headwinds that gripped tech as it saw its stock price dip by some 30% this year.

Ballmer was the eighth-richest person in the world as of Tuesday. His net worth was valued at $85.5 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.