Amazon loses $134 billion in market value as share price slumped 8.8%. Billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, saw $15.2 billion of his net worth removed to settle at a still pretty $191.5 billion, as per the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
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Updated3 Aug 2024, 07:59 AM IST
File image: Amazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos saw $15.2 billion of his own net worth erased due to the share slump. It settled at a still pretty $191.5 billion.(Reuters / Bonnie Cash )
Amazon shares slipped 8.8 percent on August 2, due to the broader market trend, and erased $134 billion of the tech company's market value, Bloomberg reported.
Billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, himself — one of the richest people on earth — saw $15.2 billion of his net worth removed to settle at a still pretty $191.5 billion, due to the share slump, as per the Bloomberg Billionaire Index (BBI).
Notably, this is the third-worst such wipeout for Bezos, after he lost $36 billion in April 2019 following divorce announcement, and later in April 2022, when Amazon shares slipped 14 per cent, it added.
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Broader Market Sell-off
The Nasdaq 100 Index slipped 2.4 per cent, and with it the wealth of tech billionaires such as Larry Ellison (Oracle) and Elon Musk, who each lost $4.4 billion and $6.6 billion respectively, Bloomberg reported. Others big names like Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg also lost over $3 billion of net worth each, as their company shares tumbled during trade.
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As per the BBI, tech billionaires collectively saw $68 billion of net worth wiped out on Friday (August 2).
In the past three weeks, the markets have wiped over $2 trillion worth due to some disappointing earnings reports, “jitters” over whether the artificial intelligence (AI) craze was overhyped and concentrated for investments, and wait-and-watch for the United States Federal Reserve's rate cut announcement, the report noted.
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For Amazon, shares slumped after its earnings call, which outlined plans for continued spend on AI, even at the cost of short-term profits, it added.
World's Second Richest Man
Second only to Musk in terms of personal wealth, 60-year-old Bezos has “steadily” sold Amazon shares through the year, Bloomberg noted. In February he off-loaded Amazon stock worth $8.5 billion over a nine-day period. Last month, in July, he further announced plans to sell more 25 million shares worth $5 billion, it added.