Not all tech billionaires were negatively affected by the sell-off. Zuckerberg added $4.3 billion to his fortune as Meta rebounded. Bezos also saw his wealth rise b $632 million
By Nileena Sunil
A tech sector sell-off, triggered by Chinese AI developer DeepSeek has rattled global markets, affecting billionaires with ties to artificial intelligence. The hardest hit includes Nvidia’s Co-Founder Jensen Huang and Oracle’s Co-Founder Larry Ellison.
While Huang ended up losing $20.1 billion, which amounted to 20% of his net worth, Ellison lost $22.6 billion, which is up to 12% of his net worth. Others who faced significant losses include Michael Dell, who lost $ 13 billion, and Binance’s Co-Founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who lost $12.1 billion.
READ: China disrupts AI market with DeepSeek: A better, cheaper version of ChatGPT? (January 27, 2025)
DeepSeek has lately gained much attention for its disruption of the AI market with its new free rollout. Its claim that its free, open sourced, large-language AI model was developed in just two months at a cost of under $6 million has challenged the expense claimed by their competitors in the west.
The AI model was launched in late December 2024, and it has been the U.S. Apple App store’s top-ranking app, causing widespread debate among competitors.
Overall, tech-sector titans as a group saw $94 billion of wealth evaporate — roughly 85 % of the Bloomberg Index’s total decline. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 3.1%, while the S&P 500 fell 1.5%.
The impact on western tech leaders is particularly notable since they have been heavily investing in AI. AI has been a major source of wealth for these individuals; despite limited immediate revenue from AI, tech firms have enjoyed soaring valuations, and generated a lot of wealth for their owners.
READ: China’s AI DeepSeek-V3 stuns, disrupts and rattles Silicon Valley (January 27, 2025)
Huang’s wealth had multiplied eightfold, and reached $121 billion since 2023, before the sell-off. Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth rose 385% to $229 billion, and Jeff Bezos gained 133%, with his fortune reaching $254 billion.
Not all tech billionaires were negatively affected by the sell-off. Zuckerberg added $4.3 billion to his fortune as Meta rebounded. Bezos also saw his wealth rise by $632 million.