The world's billionaires lose nearly $2 trillion in 2022, with Elon Musk being the biggest loser
Even billionaires have bad days. The richest people in the world collectively lost nearly $2 trillion in 2022 with tech giant Elon Musk losing the most, according to Forbes.
Estimates from Forbes saw wealth from billionaires drop from $13.8 trillion on Jan. 1 to $11.9 trillion on Dec. 9 as they've experienced a year of unstable stock markets, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and inflation.
The number of billionaires has seen a drop, too, from 2,671 to 2,523, as the likes of rapper Kanye West, tech entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, and automotive maker RJ Scaringe lose their billionaire status.
Moreover, billionaires from the US lost the most, followed by the richest in China, Russia, Germany, and Hong Kong.
'Biggest loser'
Twitter's CEO for now Elon Musk was named by Forbes as "the biggest loser of 2022," shedding more than $115 billion of his wealth. In his takeover of the social network, Musk spent $44 billion, selling billions of his Tesla shares to finance it.
His stint as head of Twitter has been rocky and has resulted in massive staff cuts and advertisers pulling from the platform. After holding a poll about whether he should step down or not on the app, Musk announced his plans to resign and said he'll be looking for a new CEO.
Other tech billionaires saw their wealth dropping as well, by Forbes' estimates, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos losing $80 billion and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg losing $78 billion.
On the other side of the fence, new billionaires emerged and had a great 2022 like Chelsea football club owner Todd Boehly, designer Tom Ford, Chinese e-commerce giant Colin Zheng Huang, and Indonesian coal king Low Tuck Kwong.
Estimates also saw Indian billionaire Gautam Adani having the best year, gaining $55.1 billion over the past 12 months.