By Vega
Monday stock plunge took a big bite out of the world’s top billionaires.
The Dow’s 2,000-point drop wiped nearly $24 billion off of the net worth of the five richest men on earth.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, the richest man alive, lost $5.6 billion to start the week, taking him to just over $111.3 billion from $117 billion, according to Forbes.
World No. 2 Bill Gates, meanwhile, lost $3.8 billion on Monday, taking his fortune down to $104.4 billion.
But the biggest loser of the morning was the third-richest man on earth, French luxury magnate Bernard Arnault, whose net worth took a $6 billion nosedive, leaving him at $92.6 billion, according to Forbes.
Even legendary investor Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and world’s fourth-richest person, got slammed. The Oracle of Omaha’s fortune was down by $5.4 billion on Monday, at $76.2 billion.
Other major losers include Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, who took a hit to the tune of $4.2 billion, and Elon Musk, who lost $3.4 billion as Tesla shares got pummeled on fears that plunging oil prices will kill demand for electric cars.
Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia said it would increase oil production and slashed prices, a move that led crude oil futures to plunge.
The price cut came on the heels of a wild week on Wall Street in which investors grappled with the growing coronavirus threat and digested the Federal Reserve’s emergency interest-rate cut aimed at blunting the outbreak’s impact on the economy.
