Il 2022 made the estates of the gods tremble American hi-tech giants. Tech billionaires have lost hundreds of billions of dollars this year, as stocks plummeted and many companies' decade-long growth slowdowns. And the kings of Silicon Valley (Musk, Bezos e Zuckerberg) somehow they will have to deal with it, starting from 433 billion dollars gone up in smoke. Though slightly less wealthy, the hi-tech scrooges are still worth billions of dollars. It is the Washington Post that accounts for the big names in Silicon Valley.
But it's also true that not all tech executives have felt the financial pressure this year. The Chinese Internet Entrepreneur Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok's parent company ByteDance, has seen his fortune grow by more than $10 billion, reaching a net worth of nearly $55 billion. Some tech moguls in the US have suffered financial losses, but to a lesser extent: Larry Ellison, the cofounder of Oracle, has lost $16 billion this year but remains the seventh richest person in the world; Michael Dell of Dell Technologies saw his net worth shrink by about $7 billion, staying just ahead of Zuckerberg on the list of the 25 richest people. The latter lost nearly $81 billion in net worth in 2022.
However, one crucial factor must be considered. The tech giants have, over the last decade, grown at breakneck speed. And many of these are worth more than they were in 2019, as accelerated market growth during the initial phase of the pandemic bolstered their portfolios before this year's crash.
Elon Musk lost $132 billion in 2022
Elon Musk he's lost $132 billion in net worth this year, a loss that surpasses the fortunes of all the other wealthy on this list.
The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX e Twitter he was the richest person in the world for much of this year. But Musk, who holds much of his wealth in Tesla stock, lost that crown when Tesla stock plummeted, tumbling nearly 70% on the year.
Shares of the American multinational were hurt by concerns over weakening demand for electric vehicles in China, one of the company's main markets. Tesla has also faced challenges related to the rising cost of supplies for vehicle production.
Some investors have also been wary of Musk's moves on Twitter. Lui sold Tesla stock to help finance a $44 billion takeover of the social media company, and his brief reign at the helm of Twitter was marred by upheavals. The turmoil has made some investors in the automaker uneasy, who have urged Musk to refocus on Tesla.
Jeff Bezos: $84,1 billion up in smoke
Jeff Bezos lost $84,1 billion this year as tech stocks tumbled from their stratospheric highs and shares of Amazon they tumbled nearly 50%, marking one of its worst years on the market.
The Amazon founder and chairman stepped down from his role as CEO last year but remains its largest shareholder.
Amazon has faced high inflation and slowing growth, while the huge sales surge seen during the pandemic has slowed down this year. The company hasn't been immune from the layoffs that have hit the tech sector and is on the verge of cutting around 10 people from its business divisions.
Bezos is also the founder of the space travel company Blue Origin and owns The Washington Post, which it bought for $250 million in 2013.
Mark Zuckerberg: lost 81 billion dollars
The net worth of Mark Zuckerberg it has plummeted nearly $81 billion this year. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the Facebook founder slipped from sixth among the richest people at the end of last year to 25th.
It's been a tough year for Facebook, which last year announced it was changing the name of its parent company to Meta. Zuckerberg, who still heads the company he founded as a college student, orchestrated the company's shift to focus more on the metaverse, a vision of the digital world interconnected.
Meta reported its first two quarterly revenue drops this year as the company faces growing competition from TikTok and other smaller social media apps, as well as a more challenging digital advertising environment. The company has warned it expects to lose even more next year as it builds the metaverse and also announced plans to lay off 11 employees in the fall in an effort to cut expenses.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin: 88 billion dollars lost
Sergey Brin e Larry Page they have lost a total of $88 billion this year. The founders of Google and current board members of the parent company A they left their executive roles in 2019, but still hold significant influence over the company through a special voting stock class. Page served as chief executive officer, while Brin served as president of Alphabet.
In a challenging year for digital advertising, even industry giants like Alphabet have not been spared. Alphabet has slowed hiring and shut down its cloud streaming service for games, Stadia.
Bill Gates lost $28,7 billion in 2022
The entrepreneur, philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft lost nearly $29 billion in 2022. The roughly 20% decline in Bill Gates it nearly matched the decline in the S&P 500 this year, meaning the billionaire's losses have largely followed a broad broad-market barometer and gauge of the economy. In fact, it beat the composite index by Nasdaq.
Gates' investments are diversified, with large holdings in several companies, real estate and extensive farmland. But his most valuable stake remains in Microsoft, which has shrunk by almost 30% this year. While revenue from Microsoft's cloud services increased 24% in the recent quarter, sales of the operating system Windows decreased by 15%. Additionally, Microsoft said it expects cloud revenue growth to slow down next year, which it pushed Wall Street to sell.
Steve Balmer: $20 billion down
The former CEO of Microsoft and owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Steve Balmer, has lost more than $20 billion this year as the tech giant's slip that dent his net worth.
Most of Ballmer's wealth is tied to shares in Microsoft, where he served as CEO from 2000 to 2014. While the company has fared better than other tech behemoths, the Windows maker has still lost more than a quarter of its value this year. In addition to expecting cloud growth to slow, Microsoft warned investors it expects weakness in PC sales to carry over into next year and that reduced advertiser spending will lower LinkedIn and ads revenue. of research.
After retiring from Microsoft in 2014, he bought i Clippers for 2 billion dollars. He's shelling out even more money to build the league's premier arena, the Intuit Dome.
