Top billionaires Jeff Bezos, the creator of Amazon, and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, both lost billions on Tuesday as Wall Street saw a carnage due to a widespread stock market sell-off following the announcement of higher-than-expected US inflation figures.
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos Lost Billions
According to sources, the overall consumer price index rose 0.1% in August and was 8.3% higher than it was a year earlier. Jeff Bezos lost almost $9.8 billion (roughly Rs 80,000 crore), while Elon Musk’s net worth decreased by $8.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (around Rs 70,000 crore).
Furthermore, all three of the largest US stock indices—Dow Jones, S&P, and Nasdaq—fell to historic lows after the Covid-19 outbreak, seeing their biggest one-day percentage drops since June 2020. Investors benefited from this week’s markets, which had four straight days of gains.
On Tuesday, the Nasdaq Composite fell 632.84 points, or 5.16 percent, to 11,633.57, the S&P 500 lost 177.72 points, or 4.32 percent, to 3,932.69, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,276.37 points, or 3.94 percent, to 31,104.97. The S&P 500’s 11 major sectors all finished the session in the red.
About the Other Billionaires
Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Steve Ballmer, among other prominent billionaires, lost more than $4 billion. According to the recently disclosed Bloomberg data, well-known investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates suffered $3.4 billion and $2.8 billion losses, respectively.
Since the first quarter of 2022, US inflation has caused mayhem in the market, except in July, when the markets recovered. US inflation increased from 8.6% in May to 9.1% in June before dropping to 8.5% in July. Global market experts claim that while there is a possibility that the US CPI data may decline in the upcoming months, the core inflation rate will continue to worry economists, analysts, and investors.
Amazon and Tesla
Bezos founded Amazon, the largest online retailer in the world, and he also controls the space exploration firm Blue Origin. Musk is the founder and CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla. He is engaged in a legal dispute regarding the takeover of Twitter, where he also has stock.
After US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made it apparent in his statement at the Kansas City Fed’s annual policy meeting in Jackson Hole that the Fed will maintain raising interest rates to combat inflation, Bezos and Musk combined lost around $12 billion last month (on August 27).
Musk lost $5.5 billion, while Bezos lost $6.8 billion, based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In addition, Buffett and Gates lost a combined $2.7 billion and $2.2 billion. According to figures from Bloomberg, Sergey Brin’s net worth has fallen below $100 billion. The wealth of the world’s wealthiest individuals is tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which is updated each day after New York’s trading session.
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