In the first six months of 2022, the world’s 500 richest billionaires lost an estimated $1.4 trillion, led by Elon Musk, who lost $62 billion, and Jeff Bezos, who lost $63 billion.
Much of the losses are coming as a mixture of inflation, Fed action, and fear surrounding it all, combine to slow the economy and weigh down equities. Amazon stock has dropped the most since 2001, when the Dot-Com bubble gave way. Tesla has had its worst quarter ever in Q2, as supply chain snarls and Covid-lockdowns in Shanghai combined to almost shut down some Gigafactories.
Although the losses are narrowing the gap of wealth inequality, they are not narrowing it much. Even after losing $63 billion dollars, Elon Musk is still sitting on a $208.5 billion fortune. Jeff Bezos’ wealth still sits at $129.6 billion. Looking overseas to France, the richest man there, Bernard Arnault ranks third in the world at $128.7 billion, followed by Bill Gates with $114.8 billion.
While one would think such losses would chasten these individuals, Thorne Perkin, president of Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management points out, the mindsets tend to be different at that level. In reality, these individuals are likely looking for low priced assets which they think will appreciate, to sink their wealth into now, as things are bottoming out.
Perkin noted, “Often their mindset is a bit more contrarian. A lot of our clients look for opportunities when there’s trouble in the streets.”
This has proven true, as Russia’s wealthiest man, Vladimir Potanin, used some of his $32.5 billion fortune to buy out Societe Generale SA’s position in Rosbank PJSC, as Western entitles began frantically divesting themselves of positions in Russian business entitles. And Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, has bought a 7.6% stake in Robinhood Markets Inc. as that stock was down 77% in May. He is reportedly is about to acquire BlockFi for “pennies on the dollar,” as well.
Of course the big buyout everyone has been talking about was Musk’s $44 billion buyout of Twitter. It is still pending what the mogul referred to as, “A few unresolved matters,” however according to reports, all parties are working together in good faith to bring the deal to completion.
At the end of the day, it is a safe bet whatever the billionaires are doing, they will keep doing it, and keep getting richer.
