Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder of Amazon, is the richest person in the world, but even he has financial setbacks now and again.
Over two trading days (Oct. 26 and Oct. 29), Bezos lost a whopping US$19.2 billion, which is the most ever in that amount of time, reports the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The loss was prompted by global market selloff “fueled by fears of further trade tensions.”
Bezos beats Mark Zuckerberg’s record in which the Facebook founder lost $16.5 billion in July following an overestimation of projected revenue and user growth. While nearly $20 billion may sound like a lot of money, for a multi-billionaire like Bezos, it’s just a fraction of his net worth.
Technology stocks dominated Monday’s drops, and the Nasdaq Composite Index reached its lowest point since April. Amazon shares slipped 6.4 percent, adding to Friday’s 7.8 percent drop, resulting in Bezos’ fortune sliding from a peak of $167.7 billion in September to a current value of $128.1 billion.
Bezos’ $8.2 billion drop on Monday was the largest ever experienced by the world’s 500 richest people. Others who were affected by the drop were Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim ($2.5 billion) and Microsoft founder Bill Gates ($558.3 million).
Bezos has been the richest man in the world for about a year, taking over the top spot from Gates. Typically, the wealthiest billionaires experience steady increases in their wealth, but Bezos doubled his net worth in the past year, reported MONEY last month. In September 2017, Besoz’ net worth was approximately $84 billion. After Amazon was valued at $1 trillion, his net worth jumped to over $166 billion.
Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post and the aerospace and spaceflight services company Blue Origin, has billions of dollars more than any other human being on earth.
His net worth is calculated largely from how well Amazon stock is performing. The company’s shares more than doubled in the past year, which has directly impacted and increased his personal wealth. MONEY estimated in August that Bezos’s net worth was increasing $260 million per day this year—for a total of $95 billion in 2018 alone.
