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The stock market crash of the technological giants of USA in 2022 it cost the world’s richest people billions of dollars.
Elon Musk
Long considered the world’s wealthiest person, South African Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and SpaceX, was pushed out of the top spot by French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk has lost $140 billion since January. Even so, his fortune is 130,000 million dollars.
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This spectacular fall was due especially to the collapse of Tesla on Wall Street (-69% as of December 28).
An electric vehicle maker, Tesla was once a darling of investors but its shares have tumbled since Musk bought Twitter in late October for $44 billion.
As soon as Musk took over the social network, his decisions generated controversy, such as the dismissal of half of the company’s staff or the reopening of the account of former US President Donald Trump, which had been closed for inciting violence.
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mark zuckerberg
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has multiplied efforts to promote the metaverse, the virtual world touted by its promoters as the future of the internet.
Investors were not seduced by the metaverse, however, as evidenced by the plummeting share price of Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which has lost 66% in stock value since the start of the year.
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Zuckerberg’s fortune fell by $81 billion to $44.4 billion.
Heavily dependent on advertising revenue, Meta also suffered from global inflation and increased competition.
Jeff Bezos
Since leaving Amazon CEO in July 2021, Jeff Bezos has devoted much of his time to space exploration with his company Blue Origin.
His wealth, however, remains strongly tied to the value of Amazon shares, the colossus of online commerce, which have fallen more than 49% in 2022.
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Chief executive of Amazon’s board of directors, Bezos lost more than $86 billion this year. His fortune is estimated at $106 billion.
Also owner of The Washington Post, the 58-year-old told CNN in November that he planned to donate most of his estate to charity.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Google’s two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have no longer led the company since resigning in 2019 from their executive roles at parent company Alphabet, which also includes YouTube and email service Gmail.
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They do, however, sit on Alphabet’s board of directors, of which they are the largest individual shareholders.
The 39% drop since January in Alphabet’s shares, which has slumped its ad revenue and is pitting itself against rivals such as TikTok, has weighed on the fortunes of both.
Page’s fell by $46.1 billion and Brin’s by $44.8 billion.
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But they are still among the world’s richest people: Page is in 10th place, with $82.3 billion, and Brin is 11th, with $78.8 billion.
zhang yiming
Chinese billionaire Zhang Yiming is an exception in the tech debacle.
The fortune of the owner of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, grew by $10.4 billion in 2022 to $55 billion, making him the 23rd richest person in the world.
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But TikTok is in the crosshairs of US authorities, concerned about possible links between the popular video-sharing app and the Chinese government.
President Joe Biden’s administration has banned installing TikTok on federal employees’ phones and could force ByteDance to sell the US version of the app.
Source: Elcomercio
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