The global coronavirus pandemic has seen the world's richest billionaires' net worths increase to spectacular levels. Jeff Bezos, for example, is now worth a staggering $202 billion. Elon Musk is worth $115 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, despite all the Facebook controversy, is worth $111 billion. It's hard to wrap our minds around that kind of wealth. Not all of the world's billionaires are faring as well, unfortunately. A number of the world's wealthiest have seen massive drops in their net worth. The following five billionaires have lost the most in net worth in 2020.
Las Vegas-based billionaire Sheldon Adelson has seen his net worth drop by $8.42 billion thanks to the hit the coronavirus shutdowns had on the casino industry. With hotels and casinos shut down for months, the industry was basically bleeding money. Adelson's Las Vegas Sands had a 51% drop in revenue during the first quarter of 2020. As a result, shares in the Las Vegas resort have dropped dramatically.
Bernard Arnault (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP)
The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, has seen his net worth drop by $8.62 billion as a result of his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway's interests in airlines and other stocks hit by the pandemic slowdown. Share prices are down and so too is Buffett's net worth.
At one time, Mexico's richest man Carlos Slim Helu was also the richest man in the world. However, so far, 2020 hasn't been so kind to his bottom line. He's lost $14.2 billion since the start of 2020 thanks to shares in his America Movil company, the largest mobile phone company in Latin America, falling more than $4 per share since January.
Zara founder Amancio Ortega has also seen his fortune take a beating to the tune of a loss of $16 billion. His Inditex Group's retail stores were shut down across the globe, leading to a sharp loss in revenue as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the biggest billionaire loser by far is France's Bernard Arnault. He's said goodbye to a staggering $20 billion since the start of 2020. At one point, Arnault was worth more than $100 billion but no more. The high-end fashion and luxury goods industry he operates in has taken a huge hit during the pandemic. Overall that sector has fallen off 68% in the first half of 2020.
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