Billionaires Hit Hard: Musk and Bezos Lose Billions in Surprising Market Downturn.
Over the past few weeks, the fortunes of billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have experienced a remarkable drop. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index reveals that Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO and world’s wealthiest individual, suffered a massive $132 billion decrease in net worth. In a similar vein, the second richest individual on the planet, Jeff Bezos, lost a substantial amount of $22.5 billion.
A significant portion of Musk’s financial setback can be attributed to his tie-in with the government-associated DOGE program, which resulted in a staggering 70% plummet in Tesla sales in Germany. Moreover, this financial analysis underscored a drastic decline in the consignments hailing from China by Musk’s enterprise.
The striking reduction in the wealth of the world’s most affluent individuals isn’t readily attributable to a singular cause. Twelve among the twenty richest people globally have experienced a depletion of their fortunes, accounting to billions. The specificity of the cause remains elusive to market experts.
DeepSeek, a firm specializing in Artificial Intelligence, introduced a turbulence into the marketplace. Given the breakneck pace of evolution within the AI industry, it’s reasonable to anticipate volatility in the stock values of technology firms.
Post the inception of DeepSeek, the Nasdaq index, inclusive of a lion’s share of technology firms, took a 3% hit. The upheaval caused by DeepSee went down in the annals of U.S. market history as the largest one-day loss.
DeepSeek’s influence cannot be understated in terms of the market instability it incited. A key factor driving this volatility was the launch of a language and reasoning model by DeepSeek – the development cost of which was significantly low compared to its counterparts in the U.S.
This budget-conscious model from DeepSeek caused reverberations in the investment sector, particularly impacting those with substantial stakes in technology and AI-focused stocks. The subsequent detrimental effect of this disruption impacted the market valuation of companies specializing in chip making.
The unveiling of DeepSeek made two things clear: the inherent instability of the market and the ramifications of innovation on both direct and indirect competition. With this revelation, investors began to pull their investments from semiconductor chip-manufacturing outfits.
One leading semiconductor chip-manufacturer suffered a jaw-dropping $600 billion reduction from its market capitalization. Uncertainty regarding potential policy changes from the Trump administration did little to inspire confidence among investors.
The Trump campaign had promised a landscape of deregulation, supplemented by substantial tax cuts for corporations – an environment pertinent for business development and growth. However, the uncertainty surrounding potential tariff regulations on countries applying hefty taxes on U.S. goods introduced a wave of instability in the market.
Certain market observers opine that this tariff war might have counterproductive results, increasing product prices for American buyers and fostering a sense of unpredictability in the market, potentially impacting wealth generation and instigating a fear of recession.
Even with these concerns, President Trump maintained a positive stance on tariffs, arguing that they were about enriching America once again. He acknowledged potential disturbances but believed that the situation would ultimately turn around in America’s favor.
Besides Bezos and Elon Musk, Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, is also reported to have lost $17.8 billion in 2025. Michael Dell, CEO and founder of Dell Computers, was hit with a $20 billion loss in his fortune within the same year.
Other members on this list of those who experienced a significant loss in wealth include Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin. Despite this trend of sell-off in the stock market, President Trump expressed optimism about economic growth and the nation’s future.
Musk echoed this sentiment, insisting that things would improve in the long term. On that very day, it’s worth noting, Musk saw $29 billion erased from his net worth.
The validity of Musk and Trump’s positivity is yet to stand the test of time. However, let’s recall that in November 2024, the market reacted positively to Trump’s presidential race win, with notable growth in investments in the stock market.