Jeff Bezos’s net worth plummeted by $15.2 billion on Friday, contributing to a broader market downturn that collectively wiped out $134 billion from the fortunes of the world’s 500 wealthiest individuals.
Amazon.com Inc. shares fell by 8.8% during a widespread market selloff, reducing Bezos’s net worth to $191.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
This significant one-day loss is his third-largest, surpassed only by the $36 billion decrease on April 4, 2019, following his divorce settlement, and the $14 billion drop on April 29, 2022, when Amazon’s shares declined by 14%.
The Nasdaq 100 Index dropped by 2.4%, which negatively impacted the fortunes of other technology magnates, including Elon Musk and Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison. Musk’s net worth decreased by $6.6 billion, while Ellison’s fell by $4.4 billion.
Concerns over potential Federal Reserve rate cuts, coupled with some notable earnings disappointments, have pushed the tech-heavy index into correction territory, erasing over $2 trillion in value in just over three weeks.
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Investors’ anxiety has also heightened over fears that the year’s AI-driven gains might be overinflated or that the market is overly concentrated. Amazon experienced its largest share drop since April 2022 after announcing in an earnings call that it intends to continue substantial investments in AI, even if it means sacrificing short-term profits.
Prominent technology billionaires such as Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page each saw their fortunes diminish by over $3 billion on Friday, as shares of Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet declined in New York trading. Overall, tech moguls lost a combined total of $68 billion, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.
Bezos, 60, the world’s second-richest person, has been steadily selling Amazon shares throughout the year. In February alone, he sold stock worth approximately $8.5 billion over nine trading days. Additionally, last month, on a day when Amazon reached a new record high, he revealed plans to sell 25 million more shares, valued at $5 billion.
This would bring his total stock sales for the year to roughly $13.5 billion, based on Bloomberg’s calculations. Despite these sales, Bezos would still retain nearly 912 million shares, equating to about 8.8% of Amazon.
In addition to his Amazon holdings, Bezos’s wealth is also derived from his ownership of the space-exploration company Blue Origin and the Washington Post.