According to a report on Insider, 10 of the of the world’s tech billionaires lost a combined amount of $575 billion in 2022 as tech stocks plummeted.
A list of tech billionaires who lost money
- Steve Balmer, the former CEO Microsoft saw a loss of $19.4 billion and is currently worth $86.2 billion. The reason was mainly because the company growth slowed with a lowered demand for personal computers and a stronger US dollar.
- Zeng Yuqun, chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology lost $20.7 billion. Zeng’s wealth comes from a 23% stake in Contemporary Amperex Technology, it supplies electric-vehicle batteries and the reason for the loss was partly because the price of nickel which is a major component of the batteries was unstable. Zeng is still worth a cool $32.5 billion.
- Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft also lost $28.6 billion. Gates is currently worth $110 billion and although he has diversified investment, Microsoft is still a major part of his holdings. The stock lost money this year as the sale of Windows fell.
- MacKenzie Scott, novelist and philanthropist lost $37.3 billion. The ex wife of Jeff Bezos (which is how she became a billionaire in the first place) saw big losses due to Amazon taking a big hit of which she has a 3% stake. Amazon shares tumbled by 50% in 2022. She now has $19 billion.
- Sergey Brin, Google co-founder, lost $44 billion. He still has $79.5 billion. The reason for the loss was mainly because of Alphabet, its parent company which experienced a huge drop in digital advertising. One of the biggest losses among tech billionaires.
- Larry Page, Google co-founder, lost $45.3 billion. Like Brin, co-founder Larry Page also lost big for similar reasons and he is currently worth $83.1 billion.
- Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO lost $79.9 billion. Zuckerberg ended 2021 as the sixth richest person in the world but he now sits at number 25, with $45.6 billion. Meta retrenched 11,000 employees in August/September.
- Changpeng Zhao, co founder and CEO of Binance lost $83.3 billion. Most of Zhao’ wealth comes from his stake in crytocurrency exchange Binance. He is now worth $12.6 billion. Of late, Binance customers withdrew billions from the crypto platform and because of the withdrawals and fluctuations in crypto prices Binance saw big losses. The Department of Justice is also investigating the company for alleged money laundering.
- Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin lost $85.2 billion. The company is struggling with high inflation and slow growth. Bezos stepped down as CEO last year and stocks continue to plummet. Bezos is now worth $107 billion.
- Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter lost $132 billion. Musk lost his title as the richest person in the world to Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH. He still has a nice $138 billion though making him the second-richest. He did however lose more money than any other billionaire this year. A big loss among tech billionaires.