Billionaires are already feeling the effects of Trump’s tariffs.
The world’s 500 richest people lost a combined $208 billion on Thursday after the president’s new levies went into effect and caused a tizzy on markets around the globe, Bloomberg reported. That drop is the fourth-largest one-day decline in the 13-year history of publication’s Billionaires Index, as well as the biggest since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over half of the uber-wealthy on Bloomberg’s index saw their fortunes plunge an average of 3.3 percent, with American billionaires really taking it on the chin. Mark Zuckerberg suffered the most in the aftermath of the tariffs’ implementation, losing about $17.9 billion—about 9 percent of his net worth—thanks to Meta’s stock dropping 9 percent yesterday. This nosedive comes after the social media brand saw an over $350 billion increase its market value from January 1 through mid-February. Since then, though, Meta shares had fallen about 28 percent.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos saw his company’s share plummet 9 percent in the biggest drop since April 2021, Bloomberg reported. In response, Bezos’s fortune fell by $15.9 billion. Since February, Amazon stock is down by over 25 percent. Elon Musk, meanwhile, lost $11 billion on Thursday, adding to the $99 billion the Tesla CEO has lost this year, and saw 5.5 percent shaved off Tesla’s shares. And Europe’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, lost $6 billion yesterday. Trump’s tariffs include a 20 percent tax on the E.U., which is likely to impact exports of spirits and luxury goods, as well as other items; those categories, of course, fall under the LVMH umbrella, which owns brands such as Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, Louis Vuitton, and Christian Dior.
There were some billionaires outside the U.S. who left the tariff announcement unscathed. The Middle East, for one, was the only region that saw its UHNW individuals on the Billionaires Index earn a net gain on Thursday. Turning to America’s neighbor, Mexico was left off Trump’s reciprocal tariff list; as a result, the country’s richest man, Carlos Slim saw his net worth jump by 4 percent, to a total of $85.5 billion.
Trump’s tariffs have caused a ripple effect across all industries, from wine to whiskey to luxury cars. Ferrari, for one, announced it was raising prices on some of its U.S. models by 10 percent to offset the cost of the levies while absorbing the cost of other models. As for how other companies will respond to the tariffs, we’ll just have to wait and see.
