Billion-dollar downfalls: Tech CEOs who lost fortunes overnight

Losing thousands or even millions is common, but for the world’s wealthiest tech titans, fortunes can evaporate by billions in just a few hours.

Market volatility, political developments, and shifting investor sentiment often send shockwaves through tech stocks, dramatically affecting the net worth of their founders.

Here’s a look at the most notable billion-dollar losses of tech CEOs that stunned the tech world.

Elon Musk

In February 2025, Elon Musk saw his wealth shrink by an astonishing $52 billion since the start of the year, yet he remains the richest person on Earth.

Tesla’s shares tumbled nearly 8% in a single day after a month-long decline of over 20%, dragging the company’s market value below $1 trillion for the first time since 2024.

The drop intensified when new tariffs introduced by President Trump further spooked investors, cutting Musk’s net worth below $300 billion.

Larry Ellison

Last month, after briefly overtaking Musk as the world’s richest man, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison lost $34 billion in days.

His wealth had skyrocketed by $101 billion following a stellar earnings report, but as Oracle shares corrected, Ellison’s fortune plunged while Musk rebounded by nearly $34 billion, a dramatic reversal of fortunes in the billionaire race.

Jeff Bezos

In August 2024, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s net worth fell nearly $16 billion in one day as Amazon shares suffered their sharpest decline in years.

Despite the dip, the e-commerce pioneer still held around $191 billion at that time.

Mark Zuckerberg

In April 2025, Mark Zuckerberg lost $18 billion after Meta’s stock plunged nearly 9% amid a broad market sell-off linked to new US tariffs.

His fortune dropped to $184.1 billion, marking one of his worst single-day losses since 2022, when he lost $81 billion over the year.

Jensen Huang

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saw his net worth plunge by $20.8 billion in January 2025 after the company’s stock fell 17%, wiping out $589 billion in market value.

The decline followed reports that rival DeepSeek had developed a competitive AI model at a fraction of Nvidia’s costs.