World's richest lose $436 billion as 2018's stock rout deepens

By Tom Metcalf and Jack Witzig

It’s been an expensive two months for the 500 wealthiest people on the planet.

Their combined net worth fell $181 billion this week as the S&P 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered their steepest weekly drop in more than two years amid heated rhetoric over tariffs and retaliation. The group’s wealth has shrunk $436 billion since markets peaked on Jan. 26.


Mark Zuckerberg bore the brunt this week with $10.3 billion wiped from his fortune on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He dropped three places to seventh on the ranking as scandal unfolded at Facebook Inc. The social network’s shares tumbled 14 per cent following reports that it let Cambridge Analytica amass data on 50 million users.

The downdraft also caught Larry Ellison, down $7 billion as Oracle Corp. forecast slowing sales growth for cloud-related products. Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffett, Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos and Alphabet Inc.’s Larry Page lost $17 billion combined.

The world’s 500 biggest fortunes now encompass $5.2 trillion, according to the index.