For the world’s richest people, there used to be three ways to quickly see a fortune disappear: Death, default or divorce.
The past few months have added another risk: Sky-high valuations of giant technology companies falling from the stratosphere.
Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth plummeted as much as $31 billion on Thursday, the third-biggest one-day drop in wealth since the Bloomberg Billionaires Index began compiling data in 2012. Two of his co-founders, Eduardo Saverin and Dustin Moskovitz, saw their fortunes tumble $4.6 billion and $3.1 billion, respectively, as Meta Platforms Inc. shares plunged 26%. Over at Spotify Inc., Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek’s net worth has fallen by $1.1 billion so far in 2022, to $2.7 billion.
An 11-digit move in wealth had previously been reserved for monumental events in the lives of billionaires. Some recent high-profile examples include Jeff Bezos’s divorce in 2019 and Bill Hwang losing $20 billion in a matter of days when his Archegos Capital Management imploded last year under the weight of margin calls.
