Jeff Bezos Loses $16 Billion as Amazon Stock Plummets

Jeff Bezos’ net worth plummeted by nearly $16 billion on Friday as Amazon’s stock experienced its worst drop in over two years, spurred by a disappointing jobs report that intensified a broader market selloff, particularly impacting Big Tech stocks. Amazon shares fell more than 9% to below $167 as of 3:30 p.m., following the announcement of $147.9 billion in second-quarter revenue, which missed analysts’ expectations of $148.5 billion.

This decline marks Amazon’s worst single-day performance since April 28, 2022, when its shares dropped 14% after earnings fell nearly $1 per share below projections, according to FactSet. Consequently, the value of Bezos’ stake in Amazon, amounting to 928 million shares, decreased from $170.8 billion at Thursday’s close to approximately $154.9 billion.

Bezos remains the second-richest person globally, with a net worth of $186.2 billion after an 8% decline on Friday, based on our latest estimates. Notably, all of the world’s ten richest individuals saw significant losses, including Elon Musk of Tesla ($5.2 billion), LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault ($3.1 billion), and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($3.3 billion).

Stocks plunged on Friday after a Labor Department report revealed that the U.S. economy added about 71,000 fewer jobs last month than anticipated, heightening recession fears. During Amazon’s earnings call, CFO Brian Olsavsky emphasized the company’s heavy investment in its cloud business, projected to generate over $105 billion annually. Amazon has invested more than $30 billion to meet the rising demand for Amazon Web Services, including generative AI tools. Olsavsky noted that these investments are expected to continue increasing throughout the second half of the year.

Amazon achieved a $2 trillion market capitalization for the first time last month, buoyed by a broader tech rally driven by AI advancements. However, this momentum has sharply reversed as concerns grow about the profitability of recent massive investments in AI by Big Tech companies.