Get the hankies ready.
The world’s biggest billionaires alone lost more than $40 billion as markets cratered on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s Index, a daily ranking of the world’s wealthiest.
Still at the top of that list is Tesla’s TSLA, -1.16% chief executive officer, Elon Musk, who lost the most of 500 billionaires. Musk shed $12.3 billion of his personal fortune as the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.11% and S&P 500 SPX, -0.73% saw their worst days in two years.
Musk has been pursuing a $44 billion deal for Twitter TWTR, -0.84%, arguing with the social-network service’s CEO Parag Agrawal about spam bots, in what may be a bid to get a cheaper deal or abandon it all together. Wednesday’s batch of Musk tweets, in which he vowed to vote Republican in the next election and decried the S&P ESG index as a scam after the index dumped Tesla.
Tesla stock price target was slashed by Wedbush on Thursday, as the analyst citing a “circus show” over Twitter and headwinds from China’s COVID battle. Since the deal was announced on April 25, Tesls has dropped 28%, though that has come amid hefty market losses this year while S&P 500 has been flirting with a bear market.
Dry those crocodile tears, though as Musk is still worth $210 billion, even if he’s lost $60.4 billion so far this year.
Just behind Musk is Amazon.com AMZN, +0.83% founder and former CEOJeff Bezos, whose Wednesday losses came in at close second, with a $8.48 billion drop leaving his fortune at $131 billion. Amazon shares have lost 35% so far this year, taking a hit from last month’s first reported quarterly loss in seven years. Year-to-date, Bezos has lost $61.6 billion.
Number three on the most wealthy list, Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of French luxury goods giant LVMH Moët Hennessy LVMH, -2.68%, lost $3.15 billion on Wednesday and has seen his fortune decline by $52 billion this year, to $126 billion.
Microsoft MSFT, -0.07% co-founder Bill Gates lost $2.19 billion on Wednesday and is $19.4 billion poorer for the year so far. His wealth stands at $119 billion, while Berkshire Hathaway’s BRK.A, -1.09% BRK.B, -0.99% chairman and CEO Warren Buffett saw $2.74 billion wiped off his fortune, though he’s gained $2.17 billion year-to-date. Buffet is presently worth $111 billion.