FANG tycoons lose $7.6 billion as technology stocks tumble

By Tom Metcalf and Jack Witzig

The billionaire founders of Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google owner Alphabet Inc. saw $7.6 billion wiped from their fortunes Wednesday as the Nasdaq 100 suffered its worst drop in three months.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg fell the most, dropping $2.9 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, while Jeff Bezos’s short-lived reign as the $100 billion man ended after a tumble in Amazon.com Inc. shares knocked $2.5 billion off his net worth.



Alphabet’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page fell almost $1 billion each, while Netflix’s Reed Hastings shed $133 million.

The decline in the so-called FANG stocks came after traders flocked to firms seen benefiting more from a potential reduction in the corporate-tax rate. Technology stocks enjoy an 18.5 per cent effective-tax rate -- the third-lowest among US large caps, according to S&P Global data -- which means less potential bounty should the Republican legislation move through Congress.