Billionaires had a terrible year. For the majority of the world’s billionaires, 2022 was a year to forget as the values of their companies, stock prices, and personal net worth all drastically decreased.
According to a Forbes article, the world’s wealthiest people were shaken by a year of volatile stock markets, a war in Europe, high inflation, and concerns of a worldwide recession after adding trillions of dollars to their combined fortunes in 2020 and 2021.
According to Forbes’ calculations, the world’s billionaires collectively lost a massive $1.9 trillion in 2022, going from having $13.8 trillion on January 1st, 2022, to $11.9 trillion on December 9th.
According to Forbes’ real-time tracker, even the number of billionaires has decreased, from 2,671 to 2,523, as well-known businessmen like FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, Kanye West, and Rivian founder RJ Scaringe have drastically decreased in number.
According to Bloomberg, the wealth of the 500 greatest billionaires in the world decreased by $1.4 trillion this year. Elon Musk, whose fortune fell by $132 billion, was at the top of the slide, followed by Jeff Bezos, who lost $85.2 billion. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, saw an $83.3 billion decline in fortune while Mark Zuckerberg saw a $79.9 billion decline. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who co-founded Google, each lost nearly $45 billion.
Billionaires in the tech industry lost the most money
The roughly 300 tech billionaires throughout the world, who collectively lost more than $1 trillion in 2022, have been hit the hardest. Things have returned to normal after a turbulent two years during which the epidemic boom and overzealous investors drove up the prices of IT stocks and startups. Companies are cutting costs drastically, firing employees, and delaying plans for initial public offerings.
The value of e-commerce behemoth Amazon has been reduced by more than $80 billion as a result of its shares falling by nearly 50%.
According to a Forbes story, Google parent Alphabet’s stock has dropped 36%, wiping off more than $40 billion from each of cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s fortunes. Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft, and former CEO Steve Ballmer have had their wealth diminished by the company’s 27% stock decline as of December 9. Gates, however, is largely to blame for his dismal year because last summer he gave a $20 billion gift to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
A sizeable chunk of Mark Zuckerberg’s money has also been destroyed; he lost $78 billion this year as shares in Meta Platforms, the company that owns Facebook, plummeted by more than 66%.
It’s Elon Musk who loses the most money
Elon Musk, whom Forbes categorizes as an automotive billionaire since the majority of his net worth comes from electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, is by far the greatest loser among billionaires this year, which is not surprising.
Investors have repeatedly reminded Elon Musk of this fact, causing Tesla’s stock price to decline 60% through December 20 of this year. According to Twitter, this is partly because investors are worried that Musk, who is also the CEO of rocket manufacturer SpaceX, is devoting an excessive amount of time and resources to his $44 billion acquisition.
Elon Musk lost more than $115 billion of his wealth in 2022, according to Forbes. He started the year far and away ahead of Bernard Arnault, the French luxury goods tycoon, in terms of wealth, by about $70 billion. Musk’s net worth has declined since he lost the top rank to Bernard Arnault earlier this month.
Billionaires in the US lost the most
The majority of American millionaires have suffered the worst losses this year, with their combined wealth burning up to $660 billion. In addition to the significant losses suffered by Musk and the country’s tech billionaires, American businessmen like Rocket Mortgage founder Dan Gilbert (-$8.1 billion), Nike co founder Phil Knight (-$18.3 billion), and former Estee Lauder boss Leonard Lauder (-$9.8 billion) rank among the country’s citizens who had the worst 2022.
Additionally, Chinese billionaires have not fared much better. According to a Forbes report, they lost a combined $620 billion, with the biggest losers being Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma (-$13.1 billion), who is reportedly residing in Japan as a result of China’s tech crackdown, real estate heir Yang Huiyan (-$11.6 billion), and bottled water tycoon Zhong Shanshan (-$11.3 billion).
According to a Forbes analysis, the war in Ukraine is still affecting Russia’s wealthiest citizens, causing a $150 billion decline in their combined net worth.
Bleeding Billionaires: The Exceptions
Despite the massive $1.9 trillion carnage, a few billionaires did stand out. Two new billionaires are a businessman and sports magnate Todd Boehly and fashion designer Tom Ford. And a few extremely wealthy billionaires have had a terrific year, like Low Tuck Kwong, known as the coal king of Indonesia, and Colin Zheng Huang, the Chinese tycoon behind the massive e-commerce site Pinduoduo (+$11.1 billion and +$16 billion, respectively).
And Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is unlikely to voice any grievances about 2022. The Adani Group, which has holdings in ports, airports, power generation, green energy, and real estate, exploded in value over the past 12 months, resulting in Adani’s biggest year ever, with gains of $55.1 billion. He will start 2023 as the third-richest person in the world with a $133.9 billion fortune, putting him well within striking reach of a faltering Elon Musk.
