Musk, Bezos lose $60 bn of their wealth in first six months of 2022

Despite losing $61.8 billion, Elon Musk has the biggest fortune with $208.5 billion

Tesla founder Elon Musk’s net worth fell by almost $62 billion and Amazon's Jeff Bezos lost a little less than $63 billion in the first half of 2022, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had his net worth cut by more than half in the first half of 2022, the index showed on Friday. Despite their losses, Musk is still the world’s richest person with a fortune of $208.5 billion and Bezos follows him with $129.6 billion net worth.

Indian industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani were estimated to be worth $98.6 billion and $93 billion. Adani, who is sixth on the Bloomberg list, saw his wealth increase by $22.1 billion, and Ambani, who is ninth, added $3 billion.

Luxury brands tycoon Bernard Arnault has a $128.7 billion fortune, making him the world's third and France’s richest person. He is followed by US tech pioneer Bill Gates with $114.8 billion.

According to the index, the 500 wealthiest people in the world have lost a combined $1.4 trillion in 2022, as global financial markets buckle under the weight of higher interest rates and inflation anxiety.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao saw the biggest loss of $79.8 billion on a year-to-date basis.

Here are the top 5 losers according to Bloomberg Billionaire Index:

The US, Japan, China, and Germany are the top countries where most of the world’s wealthy live. The four are home to almost 64 per cent of high-net-worth individuals globally, according to a report by Capgemini released in June.

The report also highlighted how women across all brackets are set to inherit 70 per cent of global fortunes over the next two generations. The massive wealth created from sky-high valuations of tech companies and startups also gave rise to more young and rich individuals, including in the crypto space