Tech billionaires lose $152 billion in Thursday’s AI stock sell-off

Musk’s fortune dropped by more than 9% to $785 billion as Tesla shares fell 11% and SpaceX shares tumbled 9%. Michael Dell lost about $19 billion, leaving him with $190 billion, after Dell Technologies stock plunged 15%. Nvidia chief Jensen Huang’s wealth fell about $15 billion to $151 billion as the chipmaker’s shares slid 9%. Oracle founder Larry Ellison lost $10 billion, a 6% decline, as Oracle stock fell 7%.

The losses were smaller for other members of the group. Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth declined nearly 4%, or about $8 billion, to $215 billion. Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer lost roughly $6 billion, or 3%, leaving him with $188 billion as Microsoft shares fell about 4%. Alphabet cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, each lost less than 2%, or under $5 billion, as Alphabet and Amazon shares slipped a little more than 2% apiece.

The market sell-off followed Democratic victories that gave the party control of the House and Senate in this week’s US midterm elections. Investors anticipated the party would rein in spending on AI and data centers, according to the source report.

Despite Thursday’s hit, all nine remained among the 15 richest people in the world at the market close. Several were still wealthier than a year earlier: Musk was up $312 billion, Bezos $100 billion, Dell $31 billion and Ballmer $13 billion. Ellison, by contrast, was down $152 billion, or 49%, over 12 months; Huang was down about $19 billion, or 11%. Zuckerberg was also below his year-earlier level, while Page and Brin were up less than 1%. As of 6:30 a.m. ET Friday, Nvidia, SpaceX and Oracle shares were higher in premarket trading.