2022 was not a good year for billionaires as numerous high-net-worth individuals lost billions of dollars from their total worth. High inflation in the economy, a stricter monetary policy followed by central banks and a supply chain crisis resulted in the erosion of wealth from these multi-billionaires.
This article will look into the wealth erosion of billionaires who lost their fortune in 2022.
1 – Elon Musk (Wealth lost in 2022 – 133 billion dollars)Â
Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX lost nearly 133 billion dollars from his total net worth in 2022 as Tesla stocks tumbled in the market. Elon Musks’ fortunes are mainly tied to stocks of Tesla, Inc, a Texas-based electric vehicle manufacturing company owned by Elon Musk.
Musk owns nearly 13.4 per cent shares of Tesla Inc. Due to production and delivery issues faced by the multinational automobile manufacturer, Tesla stock tumbled by nearly 70 per cent in 2022. Tesla stock which was trading at 399 dollars per share in February 2022, is currently trading at 105 dollars.
Elon Musk who was at the top of the wealthiest individuals on the planet lost the spot to Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault, founder and chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE.
The decision of Elon Musk to buy the social networking platform Twitter for more than 44 billion dollars also did not go well with the investors and market. Investors were concerned that if Elon Musk purchase Twitter, he won’t get enough time to take care of his duties in Tesla Inc. In between this stock market fiasco, Elon Musk himself offloaded 40 billion dollars worth of Tesla shares on market in 2022. This was taken as a red flag by investors who opted for offloading Tesla stocks from their portfolios.
2 – Jeff Bezos (Wealth lost in 2022 – 85 billion dollars)Â
Jeff Bezos, the founder of the multinational eCommerce platform, Amazon, witnessed his total net worth going down by 85 billion dollars in 2022. Mr Bezos suffered huge erosion in net worth as stocks of Amazon tumbled by nearly 80 per cent in 2022. The stock which was trading at 170.40 on January 2022 was trading at 84.18 on December 29th 2022.
High inflation rates in the global economy increased the cost of living in numerous major economies. Customers started spending less on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon in order to save up money. This had a significant impact on sales on Amazon. Decreased revenue from advertisements also had made the stock look less attractive in the market. This pushed down the stock prices.
3 – Mark Zuckerberg (Wealth lost in 2022 – 80 billion dollars)Â
Mark Zuckerberg, Founder, and CEO of Facebook lost 80 billion dollars in 2022 as his experiments with Meta did not go well with the market. Over the past 12 months, Meta stocks tumbled by more than 200 per cent in the stock markets. A drop in revenue from advertisements also put more pressure on the stock.
According to Forbes, Mark Zuckerberg is 25 wealthiest person on the planet with a net worth of 45.2 billion dollars.
4 – Larry Page (Wealth lost in 2022 – 45 billion dollars)Â
Larry Page, who is co-founder and director of Google, lost 45 billion dollars in 2022 as Alphabet stocks tumbled on the market. A large portion of assets owned by Larry Page is of Alphabet stocks. Due to decreased advertisement revenue and increasing cost at Google, Alphabet stocks suffered huge losses in the market.
This decline in the market value of Alphabet stocks pushed down the net worth of Larry Page. Mr Page owns a nearly 6 per cent stake in the multinational tech company.
5 – Bill Gates (Wealth lost in 2022 – 29 billion dollars)Â
The co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates suffered significant erosion in net worth in 2022 as Microsoft stocks performed very badly in the stock markets. Bill Gates, who is worth 102.9 billion dollars (as of 3/1/23 13:46 EST ) has multiple investments across various companies, real estate and land.
A major portion of his net worth is tied to his shareholding in Microsoft. Bill Gates owns a 1.38 percentage stake in the multinational software company.
Due to lesser demand for personal computers and a stronger dollar, Microsoft Corporation suffered a steep decline in sales and revenue. Slow growth in revenue from cloud services also put more pressure on the stock. In 2022, the stock went down by more than 95 per cent.
6 – Phil Knight & family (Wealth lost in 2022 – 18.5 billion dollars)Â
Phil Knight, American billionaire and co-founder of Nike lost 18.5 billion dollars from his net worth in 2022. Phil Knight is the largest individual Nike shareholder. Mr Knight also owns additional shares in Nike through Swoosh LLC. Other than shareholding in Nike, Phil Knight also receives billions of dollars as salary and other receipts.
Nike stocks went down by more than 45 per cent in 2022 as sales were affected by high inflation and volatility in capital markets. Heightened competition from smaller apparel manufacturers also put pressure on the multinational sporting brand.
7 – Leonard Lauder (Wealth lost in 2022 – 11.1 billion dollars)Â
Leonard Lauder, Former CEO and current chairman emeritus of the cosmetics company, Estée Lauder is the 70th wealthiest person on the planet with a net worth of 22.2 billion dollars. In 2022, Leonard Lauder lost 11.1 billion dollars from his total net worth.
Apart from his 2 billion dollars worth of art collection Leonard Lauder owns a 0.12 per cent shareholding in Estée Lauder. He also owns 62.7 per cent Class B shares in Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
8 – Daniel Gilbert (Wealth lost in 2022 – 9.1 billion dollars)Â
Daniel Gilbert who is currently the 97th wealthiest person on earth co-founded Rocket Mortgage (earlier Quicken Loans) in 1985. In 2022, Daniel Gilbert lost 9.1 billion dollars from his overall net worth. A large amount of Daniel’s net worth is connected to his shareholding in Rocket Mortgage.
In 2022, stocks of Rocket Mortgage tumbled by nearly 50 per cent. This pushed down the total net worth of Daniel Gilbert. Mr Gilbert owns a 0.056% stake in RKT Holdings SIA and a 0.060% stake in Rocket Companies Inc.
