The turbulence in the stock market has put a dent in the fortunes of the world's richest people. Take Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who lost $7 billion this week as stocks took a turn for the worse.
The U.S. stock market fell by 5% in a week of heightened volatility, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by 1,000 points on two separate days before making back some of their ground. The blue-chip Dow and S&P 500 Index both slipped into correction territory on Thursday. A correction is defined as a decline of 10% or more from the most recent high.
Billionaires like Bezos have plenty to lose in a market downturn. The founder and CEO of Amazon started the week with a net worth of $118.8 billion, according to Forbes' real-time billionaire rankings. However, by Friday, his fortune had dropped by $7 billion to $111.8 billion.
Bezos, of course, is still far and away the richest man on the planet. He is worth some $20 billion more than Bill Gates, the second-richest person in the world, who has a net worth of $89.7 billion. Gates, who over the years has been selling shares of Microsoft and giving them to his foundation, lost $2.3 billion this week.
Mark Zuckerberg, the world's third-richest person, also fared particularly bad this week. The 33-year-old cofounder and CEO of Facebook lost $5.6 billion as shares of his social media giant dropped by 7%. He is now worth $71 billion, down from $76.6 billion a week ago. Facebook's stock is still up 30% in the last twelve months, however, and the company posted solid results in its latest quarter even as it users spent less time (equivalent to 50 million cumulative fewer hours every day) on the platform.
Octogenarian investor Warren Buffett's net worth fell by $5.4 billion to $84.5 billion in a matter of days. Some of Berkshire Hathaway's biggest holdings have been battered, including Wells Fargo (down 12% this week), Kraft Heinz (-7%), Coca-Cola (-7%) and Apple (-2%).
Meanwhile, the tumult wasn't contained to the U.S. Zara cofounder and fast fashion pioneer Amancio Ortega watched $5.2 billion disappear from his fortune, while LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault's fortune slid by $3.9 billion. Mexico telecom giant Carlos Slim's net worth slipped by $2.9 billion to $70.1 billion.
The fortunes of Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin also contracted by $3 billion apiece as shares of Alphabet, Google's parent company, fell 7% this week. Oracle's Larry Ellison lost $2.2 billion as shares of his company slid 5%.
