Last week was eventful for billionaires around the world, as their fortunes dropped by about $200 billion on Monday alone. However, they managed to recover a significant portion of that lost wealth, and investors reassessed their opportunities. In Japan, the market capitalization of stocks fell by approximately $1.1 trillion over just three sessions, stabilizing the market capitalization at $6.1 trillion, according to Bloomberg estimates reviewed by Al Arabiya Business.
Meanwhile, technology stocks faced severe blows as investors reevaluated their portfolios, especially with the inflation of AI-driven stock prices, which analysts viewed as an opportunity for repurchasing at more reasonable prices. Despite the considerable losses, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was the biggest gainer last week, adding $10 billion to his fortune and climbing to the third rank, surpassing Europe's richest man, Bernard Arnault, by a narrow margin. Zuckerberg's wealth rose to $184 billion, while Arnault's fortune increased by $2 billion.
On the other hand, the wealth of the world's richest man, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, decreased to $229 billion from $235 billion a week earlier. Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos lost $3 billion, bringing his fortune to $190 billion. Bill Gates also lost $2 billion last week, while Microsoft co-founder Steve Ballmer lost $1 billion. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each saw their fortunes decline by $3 billion.
Warren Buffett, co-founder of Berkshire Hathaway, indicated market resilience as his wealth increased by $1 billion during a frenzied and turbulent week in the stock market. Buffett triggered a drop in technology stocks after revealing that his company had divested nearly half of its stake in Apple shares during the second quarter.
Despite market disruptions, declining stocks, concerns over a U.S. economic recession, and anticipated significant changes in central bank policies in both the Far East and the West – Japan and the United States – some of the biggest gaining billionaires this year reached record levels in their fortunes during July, led by Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang from Nvidia, and Larry Ellison from Dell.
