According to a recent Oxfam analysis, billionaires' fortunes have gained as much in the last two years as they did in the preceding 23 years combined, bringing the group's total net worth to $12.7 trillion, or nearly 13.9 percent of world GDP. It is a greater than twofold increase since 2000.
Billionaires have a tremendous impact on the world economy, politics, and philanthropy. In 2022, there will be 2,668 billionaires around the globe, according to Forbes. The richest belong to an even more exclusive club and have greater power. A significant percentage of the wealth of several of these billionaires is yet, invested in the companies they started, which include industry giants in technology.
During the epidemic, a new billionaire was created every 30 hours on average, but that has changed since the beginning of this year.
The S&P 500 has dropped roughly 18 percent year so far, while crypto-currencies have lost $1 trillion in market value, resulting in historic losses for the world's wealthiest.
Part of the reason was China's crackdown on internet firms and a cooling real estate market, but it also reflected the furious advances in the US stock market, which helped inflate everything from cryptocurrencies to property values. Like this, now swiftly reversing as inflation has soared, raising questions about how quickly the Federal Reserve may hike interest rates.
Biggest Billionaire Losers
1. Elon Musk
Musk became a significant investor in Tesla Motors (now Tesla) in 2004, which led to his present position as CEO of the electric car firm. In addition to electric vehicles, Tesla manufactures energy storage devices, car accessories, and solar power systems through its acquisition of SolarCity in 2016. Musk is also the CEO and chief engineer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a space launch rocket company.
Musk came to the top of the wealth rankings in 2020 as a result of the 740 percent increase in Tesla stock. Tesla will become the most significant business to join the S&P 500 in December 2020. Musk became the world's richest person in January 2021 (a title he has retained since).
Elon Musk suffered the most loss of any of the 500 billionaires. Musk's fortune was reduced by $12.3 billion as the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA and 500 SPX had their worst days in two years. Musk has been pursuing a $44 billion acquisition for Twitter TWTR, battling with the social-network service's CEO Parag Agrawal over spam bots, maybe in an attempt to negotiate a better bargain or walk away from it entirely. Musk is still worth $210 billion, after losing $60.4 billion this year.
2. Jeff Bezos
Before relinquishing 4 percent of Amazon to his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott as part of the divorce proceedings in 2019, Bezos owned up to 16 percent of the company. Amazon's stock price increased by 76% in 2020 due to increased demand for online purchasing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bezos will stand down as CEO of Amazon on July 5, 2021, and will become its executive chair.
Jeff Bezos lost $20.5 billion of his fortune when Amazon.com Inc.'s earnings disappointed investors, contributing to the worst year for technology stocks in years. His fortune has plummeted since it peaked at $210 billion last year, making him the world's richest person at the time, according to a New York Post story. According to Forbes, MacKenzie Scott, Bezos' college sweetheart and former wife, who received 25% of his Amazon shares in a divorce deal, had a $6 billion loss in her wealth, dropping to $36.8 billion. According to a Dailymail UK article, Bezos' net worth has fallen by $40 billion since the beginning of the year.
3. Mark Zuckerberg
According to Forbes, the 37-year-current old's net worth is $84.3 billion, the first time he hasn't been one of the world's top ten richest individuals since the summer of 2015. Zuckerberg controls approximately 13% of Meta, which just rebranded from Facebook.
The world's richest person, Elon Musk, lost $35 billion in November after tweeting about selling 10% of his Tesla stock, making Zuckerberg's $29.8 billion loss the second-largest single-day loss in history. Musk's net worth decreased by $25.8 billion last week, according to Bloomberg.
Meta's shares plunged after the firm warned of weaker-than-expected sales growth in the coming quarter and estimated that Apple's recent privacy reforms will cost the company $10 billion.