Members of the $100 billion club took heavy hits in the last quarter, with the richest person in the world, Elon Musk, reporting a loss of $116 billion in his personal fortune. The Tesla CEO's current net worth is $316 billion, as per Bloomberg's Billionaire Index.
Tesla reported a 13 percent drop in first-quarter auto sales on Wednesday amid lower production during factory upgrades and blowback over Musk's work for the US President Donald Trump administration. Tesla shares fell more than six percent in early trading after the deliveries fell by more than expected from the year-ago stretch. Shares later partially rebounded.
The weak car sales add to questions about Musk's continued stewardship at the EV maker, which has been targeted for consumer boycotts and vandalism as the billionaire has helped engineer thousands of job cuts across the US federal government.
Wedbush's Dan Ives, a prominent technology analyst who has been a longtime believer in Tesla's growth potential, called the figures "a disaster on every metric," according to a note.
"It's a fork in the road moment," Ives said. "The more political he gets... the more the brand suffers, there is no debate. This quarter was an example of the damage Musk is causing Tesla."
Other members of the 100 billion club also suffered heavy losses with Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Dell technologies' Michael Dell being ousted out of the elite club after a tough quarter at the stock market caused in part by Trump's aggressive tariff policies which led to dampened investor confidence.
Huang lost $19.2 billion this year as the company's shares fell by 18 percent since January. His net worth currently stands at $95.2 billion, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He, however, remains richer than he was two years ago when his net worth was about $25 billion. His net worth had peaked at $130 billion last November.
The Dell CEO lost a big chunk of his fortune, too. In the first quarter of this year, his net worth fell by $24.5 billion. He is currently at the 14th position on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, just below the $100 billion mark.
On the other hand, the only centi-billionaires to grow their wealth this year were Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. The Berkshire Hathaway chairperson made $24.3 billion to his fortune last quarter following a surge in stock, putting him fifth on Bloomberg's list at $166 billion, two spots and $5 billion ahead of his friend and Microsoft cofounder Gates, whose net worth has increased by $2 billion this year. The bulk of Gates's wealth comes from his cash holdings of $78 billion, while his stake at Microsoft is valued at $24.3 billion.
(With inputs from AFP)
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