The year 2022 was a difficult one for the world’s wealthiest individuals, as the Bloomberg Billionaires Index revealed that almost $1.4 trillion was wiped from the fortunes of the richest 500 individuals.
Ultra-wealthy tech founders, such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, led the wipeout in fortunes that spanned the globe.
The alleged fraud by onetime crypto wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried, the devastating war waged by Russia on Ukraine, and the antics of Musk were among the reasons for the loss of fortunes.
In addition, widespread inflation and aggressive central bank tightening added to the billionaire’s woes.
However, not all billionaires had a bad year, as India’s Gautam Adani surpassed Bill Gates and Warren Buffett on the wealth index, while some of the world’s richest families, like the Kochs and the Mars clan, also added to their fortunes.
Sports franchises only became more valuable, growing increasingly unattainable for anyone outside the top 0.0001%.