Stocks slumped on Wednesday morning after consumer price index data showed slightly worse than expected inflation in September, erasing billions of dollars from the fortunes of the world’s wealthiest people—including Elon Musk, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg.
Key Facts
- Musk’s wealth fell by $17.6 billion at around 11:25 a.m. EDT as the share price for both SpaceX and Tesla slid about 1.5% and 1.9% respectively, bringing his net worth down to $952.8 only one day after it dipped below the $1 trillion mark.
- Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies, also lost approximately $15 billion on Wednesday morning, as shares for the tech company he founded fell about 8.6%.
- Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, also lost roughly $11.2 billion after his company’s share price fell by about 7%.
- Other billionaires posted big losses as tech stocks slid—Zuckerberg lost approximately $6.2 billion, while Nvidia’s Jensen Huang lost about $4 billion.
- However, not all tech stocks fell on Wednesday—Google’s parent company Alphabet remained mostly flat after spiking and falling after markets opened, and the net worth of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the third and fourth-wealthiest people in the world, rose slightly with the share price.
Forbes Valuation
Elon Musk’s net worth still makes him the wealthiest person in the world by a wide margin, even after losing tens of billions over the course of the last two days. Much of it is derived from his stakes in SpaceX and Tesla, meaning his wealth can dramatically rise and fall with these companies’ share prices.
Key Background
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the CPI data for September on Wednesday, which showed inflation rose 0.6% for the month, while the 12-month rate rose to 3.7%. This rate was slightly higher than the expected 3.6% rate economists expected, CNBC reported. Much of this rise was driven by a rise in energy prices amid the Iran war, and the BLS statistics show energy prices remain up 20.4% for the year. Stock indexes slid after the data was released—the Nasdaq was down 1.1%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.77% at around 11:20 a.m.
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