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US market rout wipes out $121 billion from top billionaires; Elon Musk loses nearly $80 billion in a day
3 min read | Updated on November 06, 2026, 14:51 IST
SUMMARY
The AI-stock selloff also changed the dynamics of the US stocks as Nvidia slipped to the second spot as the most valuable company, preceding Apple Inc., which held the market capitalisation of $5 trillion. Besides this, billionaires like Elon Musk Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Warren Buffet, and others also saw their net worth drop by as much as 9%.
World's top three billionaires lost nearly $89 billion in net worth on Thursday. | Image: Shutterstock
The NASDAQ 100 witnessed one of the steepest drops since COVID-19, as sharp profit booking in the tech stocks pulled the benchmark index lower. The NASDAQ 100 fell 6.36% on Thursday, the steepest fall since March 2020. Alongside, the Dow Jones erased all the major gains made during Wednesday’s session, plunging over 1800 points, and the S&P 500 declined over 4%. The rout spread across the Asia on Friday morning, where the Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese benchmark indices plunged up to 7%.
Besides this, the AI-stock rout also changed the dynamics of the US stocks as Nvidia slipped to the second spot as the most valuable company, preceding Apple Inc. which held the market capitalisation of $5 trillion.
Besides this for the richest of the riches also suffered major losses after the steep correction in the US markets on Thursday. Elon Musk, who enjoys hold $785 billion in net worth, suffered a loss of $79 billion, but continues to top the list of wealthiest persons list. He is followed by Jeff Bezzos at ~$370 billion, whose net worth plunged ~$4.9 billion. Larry Page, former CEO of google, sits at the third position with a net worth of $248 billion, down $4.2 billion.
Sergey Brin, President of Alphabet saw his net worth drop by $3.88 billion to $231 billion after Thursday’s market crash. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta Platforms, also saw hit networth dip by $8.4 billion to $215 billion as of Thursday.
| Name | Net worth | 1-day change | YoY change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elon Musk | $785 billion | $79.7 billion | +66% |
| Jeff Bezos | $370 billion | $4.99 billion | +37% |
| Larry Page | $248 billion | $4.24 billion | +0.7% |
| Sergey Brin | $231 billion | $3.88 billion | +0.4% |
| Mark Zuckerberg | $215 billion | $8.4 billion | -4.1% |
| Micheal Dell | $190 billion | $19.4 billion | +19.7% |
| Steve Ballmer | $188 billion | $6.29 billion | +7.7% |
| Warren Buffet | $163 billion | $2.26 billion | +10% |
(Source: Bloomberg billionaire index, 06 November, 2026)
Why did billionaires lost billions in net worth?
Most of billionaires hail from the US tech industry, which was the most thriving sector in 2026. The Artificial Intelligence ballooned majority of their investments to record high levels. However, Wednesday’s Democratic win in the US mid-term elections, seem to have paused the race of the AI investment theme. Analysts believe, the Democrats control over both the houses of Congress could slow down the pace of artificial intelligence development in the US. The AI stocks rally , which is fuelled massive investments in the AI infrastructure like chips, data centre, required massive amounts of cash to buildout an entire ecosystem. Core of this system, sits chip companies like Nvidia, Micron, SanDisk and other, who saw a euphoric rally in the recent few years.
To fund this AI-ecosystem, the AI-hyperscalers like Alphabet Inc, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, poured over $800 billion this year to develop computing capacities through data centres. However, these investments are yet to deliver any meaningful outcome, creating apprehensions amongst investors mind. In addition, concerns also rose over the safety of these AI platforms, which recently bypassed security mechanisms to carry out cyber attacks and steal data. All these developments have resulted into a cautious outlook on the AI sector, prompting for a profit booking move from investors in this theme.
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