MOSCOW – The world’s richest people lost a combined US$208 billion in 24 hours after the announcement of new US import tariffs, according to data from the Bloomberg Billionaire Index (BBI) compiled by Bloomberg on Friday, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti.
The plunge in the combined wealth of the world’s top 500 billionaires is the fourth-largest one-day decline since the BBI was launched 13 years ago and the largest since the Covid-19 pandemic.
In particular, the founder of Meta, which is banned in Russia and designated as an extremist organisation, Mark Zuckerberg, lost some 9% of his fortune, or US$17.9 billion, as Meta shares fell by almost 9% on Thursday, making Zuckerberg the biggest loser in dollar terms, BBI data showed.
At the same time, online retailer Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lost US$15.9 billion of his fortune as Amazon shares saw a decline of 9%, the largest since April 2022.
US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who owns Tesla and SpaceUSX, lost US$11 billion on Thursday amid an almost 5.5% drop in Tesla shares.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a 10% base tariff on all imports into the United States starting April 5, while higher, reciprocal tariffs on countries with which the US has the largest trade deficits will take effect on April 9. – April 4, 2025