It’s been a year of pandemic-driven lockdowns, political instability, and low wealth gains for everyone, particularly for the world’s wealthiest people.
It’s been a rough year for billionaires. According to Forbes estimations from December 9, the world’s billionaires will have lost $1.9 trillion by 2022. This year, American millionaires have lost the most money, with $660 billion in total worth lost.
No one has been hammered harder than the world’s 300 tech billionaires, who will have lost more than a trillion dollars by 2022. Amazon shares have plummeted over 50%, wiping out more than $80 billion from founder Jeff Bezos’ net worth. Alphabet’s stock is down 36%, wiping out the fortunes of co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin by more than $40 billion each.
Through December 9, Microsoft stock had fallen 27 percent, reducing the fortunes of co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.
Mark Zuckerberg, who Forbes classifies as media & entertainment, has lost $78 billion this year as shares of Facebook-parent Meta Platforms have dropped 66%.
The greatest loser in 2022, by far, is Elon Musk, who Forbes labels an automotive billionaire since Tesla contributes most of his net worth. Investors have reminded Musk of this fact, driving Tesla’s stock price down 60% year to date through December 20, partly owing to concerns that Musk, also CEO of rocket company SpaceX, is spending much too much time and money on his newest obsession, Twitter.
According to Forbes, Musk lost more than $115 billion of his worth in 2022. He began the year as the world’s richest person, some $70 billion ahead of French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault. However, Musk was overtaken by Arnault earlier this month, and his net worth has continued to fall.
Meanwhile, sanctions and a faltering economy have affected Russia’s richest people, resulting in an estimated $150 billion decline in the total net worth of the country’s billionaires.
Nonetheless, not everyone is doing poorly. Todd Boehly, an investor, sports magnate, and designer Tom Ford are two new billionaires. And it’s been a good year for a few super-rich billionaires, notably Indian billionaire Gautam Adani.
Gautam enjoyed the best year of his life, gaining $55.1 billion in 2022. At $133.9 billion, he will be the world’s third-richest person in 2023, well ahead of Elon Musk.
