Tech Selling Wipes Out $108 Billion in Wealth from World’s 500 Richest People
A sharp decline in the global tech sector has led to a significant drop in the net worth of the world’s 500 richest people, with a combined loss of $108 billion. The sell-off was mainly driven by AI developer DeepSeek, a Chinese company that has been developing AI models since 2023. The company’s free R1 chatbot app topped download charts worldwide over the weekend, making it a hot topic in the tech world.
Billionaires with fortunes linked to artificial intelligence were among the biggest losers, with Nvidia Corp. co-founder Jensen Huang’s net worth declining by 20% or $20.1 billion. Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison’s net worth dropped by $22.6 billion, although this represented just 12% of his total fortune.
Other notable losses included Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Inc., who lost $13 billion, and Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, co-founder of Binance, who lost $12.1 billion. The tech sector as a whole saw $94 billion in wealth erosion, nearly 85% of the total decline in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The scenario is a reversal of the recent trend, where tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, have seen their wealth soar. In 2022, the development of AI models led to a surge in the value of big tech companies, making their owners incredibly rich. However, the latest decline has wiped out much of that gains.
