Tech titans Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and America’s wealthiest individuals have collectively lost more than $300 billion in the first 100 days of President Donald J. Trump’s second term.
This is according to a latest report by Forbes that stated the U.S. stock market posted its worst start to a presidential term in 50 years, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each down nearly 8% amid a trade war fueled by President Trump’s renewed focus on tariffs and few have felt the pain more acutely than Musk himself.
Since January 20, Musk’s fortune has shrunk by more than $45 billion, the largest individual decline among U.S. billionaires.
Tesla, the centerpiece of Musk’s business empire, has fallen 33% amid investor concerns about supply chain disruptions and his increasingly contentious political alignments. The entrepreneur, who had once championed Trump’s initiative to streamline government operations, has since distanced himself from the administration, trading public barbs with senior trade adviser Peter Navarro on social media.
Musk is hardly alone. Among the top ten hardest hit are Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (down $34.8 billion), Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page (down $25.6 billion and $27.4 billion, respectively), and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg (down $21.5 billion). Many of these tech leaders were prominent attendees at Trump’s inauguration in January; today, they are some of the largest financial casualties.
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, a vocal Trump supporter and participant in a proposed $500 billion AI infrastructure plan, has seen his wealth tumble by $28.2 billion. Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone, who reversed his initial decision to stay out of Trump’s 2024 campaign, is now nearly $11 billion poorer.
What we know
Not all billionaires have faltered. Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has emerged as the biggest winner of Trump’s early presidency.
By keeping a record $334 billion in cash and cash equivalents, Buffett’s holdings have weathered market turmoil, with his company’s shares up 13% and his personal fortune swelling by $19.6 billion. Peter Thiel and Palantir CEO Alexander Karp have also gained, buoyed by lucrative federal contracts. The Walton heirs, Rob, Jim, and Alice, have each added over $3 billion as Walmart profits from inflation-driven consumer demand.
Even so, President Trump has not been spared. His own net worth has dropped by $1.5 billion, largely due to a 35% plunge in the stock price of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social.
As Trump completes his first 100 days in office, the tally is stark: a divided billionaire class, a volatile market, and a presidency already reshaping fortunes for better and for worse. (Nairametrics)
