Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced its largest one-day drop ever; dropping 1,175 points, or 4.6 percent. As a result, the drop wiped the Dow's gains for the year. The drop also caused some of the world's wealthiest individuals; including Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, to lose billions of dollars (on paper) in the process.
Jeff Bezos, currently the richest person on the planet, lost $3.2 billion as a result of the Dow's historic drop. That essentially negated the $3.2 billion he earned in one day last week in the aftermath of Amazon announcing its huge quarterly results. Despite the loss, Bezos is still worth $115.7 billion, putting him well ahead of Bill Gates, who is worth $90 billion.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the cofounders of Google, each lost $2.2 billion after the Dow's drop. The loss was as a result of shares of their company, Alphabet, dropping by five percent. In addition, Oracle founder Larry Ellison also lost $2.2 billion.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg lost $3.6 billion after yesterday's drop, which accounts for 4.7 percent of his net worth. The drop was a result of shares of Facebook dropping 5 percent. He was worth $73.1 billion at the end of the day.
The biggest loser in the aftermath of the Dow's record-breaking drop? Warren Buffet. The 'Oracle of Omaha' lost $5.3 billion in one day, which accounts for a nearly six percent drop in his net worth. Despite the damage, Buffet is still the third-richest person on Earth, after Bezos and Gates, respectively.
The fact that these billionaires are losing major bucks as a result of a major drop in the market isn't a surprise. In many cases, the wealthy are wealthy because of their involvement in the formation of publicly traded companies, and own a bulk of the shares in those companies. So when the share values of those companies drop, naturally, the net worth of those who have money tied in those companies drop as well.
