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THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST

The founders of Google, Oracle, Amazon and Tesla all lost billions this week, resulting in a shakeup among the world’s richest and a change at number 2.

Stocks fell broadly this week, as a series of disappointing announcements by companies collided with investor fears of inflation-driven interest rate hikes.

Netflix’s stock price, for instance, fell by more than 20% Friday, as its outlook for subscription growth underwhelmed analysts. The net worth of the company’s cofounder and CEO Reed Hastings fell by $1 billion to $4.1 billion in response to the news.

One day earlier, Peloton’s shares crashed by more than 20%, after CNBC reported the at-home exercise equipment company is planning to suspend production to better align with consumer demand. It was the latest in a series of let downs for cofounder and CEO John Foley, who briefly became a billionaire at the height of the pandemic – his net worth has since plummeted to roughly $480 million from $1.5 billion last April.

Shares of Peleton rival Beachbody also crashed by roughly 15% this week, further distancing founder and CEO Carl Daikeler from the $1.7 billion fortune he had last June when his company went public via SPAC. His net worth now stands at less than $240 million.

Another big loser: Moderna’s CEO Stéphane Bancel whose net worth dropped by 22% to $5.2 billion, as the stock fell for six days straight, in light of growing research suggesting the company’s COVID-19 booster is less effective against the omicron variant.

Tech stocks overall were particularly hard hit by looming interest rate increases. Each of the three main stock indices fell by more than 4% this week, but the NASDAQ’s 7%+ drop was the steepest. Hit particularly hard were SnapChat cofounders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, whose fortunes both slipped by more than 10% this week – or nearly $1 billion apiece.

In fact, all but one billionaire in the tech-heavy top 10 ranks of the world’s richest people lost at least $3 billion including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

The net worths of Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos both fell by more than $19 billion, resulting in a shakeup among the world’s three richest people. Shares of Bernard Arnault’s luxury goods conglomerate LVMH actually rose slightly this week, adding $4.5 billion to his fortune and propelling him past Bezos into the ever-fluctuating runner-up position.