Trump's tariffs hit billionaires: Who lost how much?

The comprehensive customs tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump have effectively turned global markets upside down. As a result of this development, the total wealth of the world's 500 richest people evaporated by 208 billion dollars as of Thursday.

This sharp decline was recorded as the fourth-largest loss in the 13-year history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It was also the steepest drop seen since the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than half of the billionaires on the index experienced an average wealth loss of 3.3 percent. US billionaires stood out as the group that took the hardest hit. Mark Zuckerberg of Meta Platforms and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com led the losses.

On the other hand, Mexico's wealthiest individual, Carlos Slim, along with some billionaires outside the US, remained almost unaffected by this collapse. The Mexican Stock Exchange rose by 0.5 percent after the country was excluded from the White House's tariff list. This increased Slim's wealth by approximately 4 percent, bringing it to 85.5 billion dollars. The Middle East was the only region to increase its wealth on a daily basis.

Here are some of the biggest losers of the day:

MARK ZUCKERBERG

The founder of Meta was the person who suffered the biggest loss of the day. A 9 percent drop in the social media company cost CEO Zuckerberg 17.9 billion dollars, which corresponds to approximately 9 percent of his wealth. Meta was a leader in tech stocks from the beginning of the year until mid-February, contributing more than 350 billion dollars to its market value. However, shares have lost 28 percent of their value since that day.

JEFF BEZOS

A 9 percent drop in Amazon shares wiped 15.9 billion dollars from the wealth of the company's founder, Bezos. This was the largest single-day drop since April 2022. Shares have fallen more than 25 percent since their peak in February.

ELON MUSK

The Tesla CEO has lost 110 billion dollars in wealth since the beginning of the year, and 11 billion dollars evaporated on Thursday alone. Tesla's delayed deliveries and Trump's calls for efficiency caused shares to fall 5.5 percent. However, Tesla's manufacturing in the US partially protects the company from the direct impact of the tariffs.

ERNEST GARCIA

The CEO of Carvana lost 1.4 billion dollars of his wealth as shares of the used car sales company lost 20 percent of their value. Shares had shown a major rise last year, but have been in a downward trend since February 14.

TOBI LUTKE

Shopify CEO and co-founder Lutke lost 1.5 billion dollars and 17 percent of his wealth due to the impact of an import-heavy revenue model. The company's shares fell 20 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange, marking the worst day for the S&P/TSX Index since March 2020.

BERNARD ARNAULT

The EU's new 20 percent customs duty plan against the US dealt a blow to luxury exporters. Shares of the LVMH group on the Paris stock exchange fell, and 6 billion dollars were wiped from the wealth of Arnault, the richest person in Europe.

ZHANG CONGYUAN

Zhang, the founder of Huali Industrial Group, lost 1.2 billion dollars, or 13 percent of his wealth, as company shares lost value following the 34 percent additional tariff Trump imposed on China. Footwear giants such as Nike, Lululemon, and Adidas were also seriously affected by this development.