Washington, United States. Five of the world’s richest men lost billions on Thursday as a sweeping sell-off in artificial intelligence stocks hit tech shares, cutting their combined wealth by $26bn. The losses affected Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Jensen Huang and Michael Dell, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Tech leaders’ wealth declines
Their fortunes fell as the value of their stakes in Tesla, Meta, Amazon, Nvidia and Dell Technologies declined. Shares in the first four companies dropped by about 2% on Thursday as investors focused on the vast cost of building AI infrastructure and questioned whether those investments would ultimately generate returns.
Dell shares drop after Lenovo warning
Dell shares fell 9% after rival Lenovo warned that a shortage of memory chips is driving up costs, raising concerns on Wall Street that profits at other manufacturers could also shrink. The decline reduced Michael Dell’s wealth by $5bn.
Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos and Huang post large single-day losses
Musk recorded the largest decline, with his fortune falling by $8bn on Thursday. Despite the drop, the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive remains up about $57bn this year, supported by rising valuations at SpaceX and his other company, xAI. Zuckerberg lost almost $7bn, Bezos shed $4bn, and Huang lost $2.5bn.
Alphabet co-founders also lose wealth
Other technology executives also saw declines, with Alphabet co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin losing about $1.5bn as shares in Google’s parent company fell by less than 1%.
Walmart shares rise, boosting Walton family wealth
Walmart shares rose nearly 4% to a record high on Thursday as concerns over tariffs eased. The increase added more than $4bn to the combined wealth of founder Sam Walton’s three children, Jim Walton, Rob Walton and Alice Walton.
How do you think rising AI infrastructure costs will affect investor appetite for tech stocks?