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Published 02 Jul, 2022 08:30pm

Bezos, Musk among world’s richest to have $250 bln shaved off net worth

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos among others included in the world’s ten richest people have suffered a $250 billion decline in their net worth in the current year.

A decline in the American stock markets in 2022 is the reason for the loss of wealth of those on the list, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires’ Index. A significant amount of their net worth is made up of ownership interests in the businesses they started.

With the S&P 500 losing more than a fifth of its value, the first half of the year has been worst for the stock markets since 1970.

It indicates that those with successful careers, including Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, as well as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault, CEO of Louis Vuitton LVMH, have had significant setbacks to their fortunes. The majority of the 500 billionaires on the index are now worth far less than they were at the start of the year.

The loss, felt most intensely by Musk and Bezos, equals to about 1.2% of the US economy. The two have shed a combined $120 billion from their accumulated wealth since year start.

Due to economic uncertainty and Musk’s endeavor to purchase Twitter, Tesla’s share price has seen a sharp 43% drop this year, while Amazon shares are down over 35% since the start of 2022.

Nonetheless, the two Indians on the list, Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, have seen hikes in their net worth of $22.1 billion and $3.05 billion respectively.

Adani runs ports and India’s biggest coalmine, profiting from rising inflation this year in the midst of tight imports and Russia’s attack of Ukraine.

Ambani, an industrialist, moreover possesses the world’s biggest petroleum refinery, another product that has taken off since Russia attacked Ukraine.

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