According to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index data, the 50 richest men in the world lost nearly half a trillion dollars in 2022. Among the hardest hits are the fortunes of Elon Musk, Tesla founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon , Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and the French entrepreneur and CEO of LVMH, Bernard Arnault.
This shocking numbers came in a moment in which the world is going through an energy crisis due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Oxfam also made a shocking report on new billionaire
Furthermore, according to Oxfam, a new billionaire is born every 30 hours because the wealth of those who were already rich increased during the pandemic.
The report, published by the international organization that deals with the fight against poverty, states that 573 people have become new billionaires since Covid-19 broke out. The total wealth of billionaires around the world is equivalent to 13.9% of global GDP.
More than 2,600 billionaires own approximately $ 12.7 trillion. In 2022, 263 million more people will end up in extreme poverty, at the rate of one million people every 33 hours.
World’s top 50 billionaires lost nearly half a trillion dollars in 2022
Musk, considered the richest man in the world, lost about $ 70 billion, so he suspended the acquisition of Twitter for $ 44 billion.
New York Post indicate his net worth is $ 201 billion. Bezos, the second richest man in the world, lost $ 61.1 billion, and is left with $ 131 billion. In 2021, he stepped down as CEO of Amazon to focus on developing the space travel company Blue Origin.
Other world’s top billionaires who had great losses this year
For Arnault, the losses amounted to $ 52.2 billion. But he remains the third richest man in the world with 123 billion. Bill Gates, on the other hand, lost $ 21.7 billion, while Mark Zuckerberg was left with $ 71.4 billion after losing $ 54.1 billion.
The only one to have seen the net worth increase is Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, who has earned $ 1.2 billion since the beginning of the year.