The Blubber

Per Forbes

The wealth of global billionaires has dropped by almost $2 trillion in 2022 alone, with American billionaires making up around a third of that loss. The biggest loss in 2022 in terms of net worth was Elon Musk's $115 billion.

To give a clearer perspective on how much global billionaires lost, Italy has an economy of just $2.058 trillion, and Canada with $1.99 trillion, per Unacademy. Musk's loss is a whopping around 5% of the total global billionaire loss.

This happened as Musk's net worth was deeply tied to Tesla stock, and as it fell by 65% over the course of 2022, per WSJ, the billionaire's net worth also fell with it. Per Fox Business, El0n Musk is on track to becoming the first person to lose $200 billion.

Following Musk are other billionaires like Jeff Bezos. Since Amazon shares have dropped by around 50%, its founder also lost $80 billion in net worth. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg is also down by $78 billion in 2022 as Meta Platforms shares dropped by 66%.

From the start of the year to December 9, 2022, the collective wealth of global billionaires on Forbe's list dropped from $13.8 trillion to $11.9 trillion. The list initially started with 2,671 billionaires, but at the end of the period, it dropped to just 2,523, losing 148 billionaires in 2022 alone.

Out of the list, tech billionaires lost the most, with losses reportedly over $1 trillion throughout the year. Tech companies have been slashing staff left and right, with companies like Meta laying off over 11,000 employees, per CNBC.

Chinese billionaires have lost second to the most in terms of net worth as COVID-19 challenges are hampering their finances. In total Chinese billionaires lost $620 billion, just $40 billion less than US billionaires. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, lost the most at $13.1 billion.

Ukrainian billionaires also lost $150 billion amid the ongoing war.

Resources:

Forbes

Unacademy

The Wall Street Journal

Fox Business

CNBC

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