Poor billionaires: World’s richest lose R5.1 trillion in past year

Some of the most prominent billionaires suffered significant losses in past 12 months, with the ten richest people in the world losing a combined $279.9 billion (R5.1 trillion).

TradingPedia used the fiscal data from Forbes in conjunction with the platforms own analysis and compiled a study highlighting the root causes which led to the massive loss.

Billionaires lose big

The data used in the study spans 12 months (from March 2022 to March 2023), and it shows Jeff Bezos suffered the biggest loss – $57 billion or R1 trillion.

Also notable was the combined loss of $62.8 billion (R1.2 trillion) by Google‘s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Google and Microsoft’s losses

As per the report, Page and brin lost more than Microsoft’s billionaires – Bill Gates and Stever Ballmer – who lost $25 billion R460 billion) and $10.7 billion (R197 billion), respectively.

This is a significant shift from previous times when Microsoft was considered the more unpredictable stock.

Clearly, that honour has now been passed to Google.

The reports highlights several root causes for Google’s loss, including the launch of its experimental AI service, Bard.

AI to blame

Google announced Bard during February and launched the service in the United States and United Kingdom in March.

At the time, Google and Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai, said it would be “proceeding cautiously” with the launch, in terms of AI advancements.

The approach might not have been as cautious as it could have, and Bard suffered a setback when a wrong answer by the chatbot given in a promotional tweet caused Alphabet shares to fall in value by roughly 7%.

Although Alphabet’s first-quarter report for 2023 showed a 3% profit increase to $69.79 billion compared to $68.9 billion in 2022, the report states that this one-digit increase isn’t consistent with over two decades of quick company expansion, which is a cause for concern for Alphabet and its investors.

Elon Musk’s rollercoaster

Meanwhile, Elon Musk lost $39 billion (R716 billion), Warren Buffet lost $12 billion (R220 billion), and MacKenzie Scott lost $19 billion (R349 billion).

Musk’s wealth slipping from $219 billion to $180 billion cost him the title of the ‘World’s Richest Person,’ largely due to his $44 billion investment in Twitter.

This business decision scared investors and caused a sharp drop in Tesla’s stock price, with Musk also breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest loss of personal fortune… in history.

READ: Elon Musk back in court over $1 trillion Tesla pay deal

_{REPORT: The ten largest financial losses incurred by billionaires in the past 12 months amount to $280 billion, Tradingpedia, Michael Fisher, 20 April 2023.}