President Trump's announcement of a 10% global tariff triggered a significant downturn in stock markets worldwide, resulting in substantial losses for the world's 3,000 billionaires. The wealthiest individuals, particularly those with close ties to Trump, experienced the most significant losses.
Several other tech billionaires and those in the clothing industry, particularly those relying on imports from Asia, also faced substantial losses. The article highlights the significant impact of the tariffs across various sectors.
Despite the market turmoil, President Trump's net worth only decreased by $40 million, a relatively small amount compared to the losses incurred by other billionaires.
Editor's note: This article was updated after the stock market close at 4 pm Eastern time on April 3, 2025.
P
resident Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that the U.S. would impose a flat 10% tariff on every country in the world, with higher rates for many of America’s largest trading partners including China, India, Japan, South Korea, the U.K. and the European Union. The news sent stock markets tumbling around the world on Thursday, with the S&P 500 index down 5% and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite down 6%. Stock markets in Japan, Hong Kong and Europe also suffered losses.
That rout wiped a collective $270 billion from the fortunes of the world’s 3,000 billionaires. The biggest losers so far are the very richest people in the world, particularly those who have cozied up to Trump in recent times.
No one has been hit harder than Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose fortune is down by $17.9 billion since yesterday’s stock market close, as shares of the Facebook parent plummeted by 9%. Zuckerberg, who sat next to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk at Trump’s inauguration in January after Meta donated to Trump’s inaugural committee, has also met with the president at the White House several times since then—most recently on Wednesday.
The second-biggest loser so far? Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who has recently tried to grow closer to Trump, sitting in the second row behind the president at his inauguration in January after Amazon donated to Trump’s inaugural committee. In February, he announced the Washington Post—which he bought for $250 million in 2013—would change its opinion pages to focus on supporting personal liberties and free markets. A month later, he opined on tariffs, saying in an X post that the opinion pages would cover "the damaging and distorting effects if tariffs are used to pick winners and losers." With Amazon shares down 9%, Bezos is $16 billion poorer on Thursday.
Larry Ellison, the founder of software giant Oracle, is down $9.9 billion, thanks to a 6% drop in Oracle stock. (He’s also a major shareholder in Tesla.) Unlike Bezos and Zuckerberg, Ellison has long been a major donor to Republicans, and he hosted a fundraiser for Trump in 2020 and dined with him at his Palm Beach club Mar-A-Lago last year. In January, he joined the president to announce a planned $500 billion investment in AI data centers in the U.S. alongside OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and Trump’s right-hand-man at the Department of Government Efficiency, is taking a beating, too. He has lost $8.7 billion, the fifth-most in dollar terms among billionaires, with Tesla shares slumping by more than 5% after a rough week in which the automaker announced its sales dropped by 13% in the first three months of the year.
Meanwhile, French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault, who was the world’s richest person until last year, suffered an $8.6 billion loss as shares in his conglomerate LVMH dipped by nearly 6%. Arnault made a public display of support for Trump in January, attending his inauguration alongside two of his five children, who are all executives at LVMH. Besides Bezos and Zuckerberg, many other tech barons—including Michael Dell, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin—also saw steep losses.
At least five billionaires have fallen out of the ranks entirely today. The biggest loser in percentage terms has been RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) CEO Gary Friedman, whose net worth has fallen by 37%, to about $730 million. Shares in the upscale furniture firm have plunged by 40%, wiping $435 million from Friedman’s fortune. Other dropoffs made their fortunes in the clothing industry, which could also be hard-hit by tariffs: The U.S. is the largest importer of apparel in the world, sourcing most apparel from Asia, including 21% from China and 18% from Vietnam. It’s no surprise then that husband-and-wife duo Kenneth and Yvonne Lo, the Hong Kong-based cofounders of clothing manufacturer Crystal International Group, also have fallen below the $1 billion mark as shares in the Hong Kong-based firm tumbled by 23%. Crystal, which makes clothes for companies including Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, Nike, Adidas and Puma, relied on North America for 38% of its revenues in 2024. Brian Hill, the founder of Vancouver-based women's fashion retailer Aritzia, also saw his net worth fall below $1 billion as the firm's stock cratered by 20%.
And how is Trump faring amid the market upheaval? Not so bad. The president’s net worth is down by $40 million, to $4.6 billion, as shareholders pushed the price of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the parent company of his social media outfit Truth Social, down 3%, less than overall market’s decline.
Here are the 10 biggest billionaire losers as of the market close:
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