A massive tech-led market downturn has wiped an astronomical $273 billion from the combined fortunes of the world’s ten richest individuals over the past month, as disappointing corporate earnings and mounting investor anxiety over artificial intelligence expenditure sent the tech-heavy Nasdaq index sliding by nearly 5 per cent.
Financial data compiled by Forbes as of midnight Eastern time on 1 November 2026 reveals that the aggregate net worth of the world’s top ten billionaires shrank from $3.1 trillion last month to $2.8 trillion. Eight of the ten wealthiest figures suffered heavy financial losses during the thirty-day period, though none lost their respective positions on the global wealth leaderboard. Tech magnate Elon Musk experienced the steepest financial decline, forfeiting $68 billion, yet comfortably retained his crown as the world’s richest person., reports Forbes
Tech earnings disappointments drive historic losses across elite ranking
An 11 per cent drop in the stock value of SpaceX—which accounts for nearly four-fifths of Elon Musk’s wealth—drove his total net worth down to $869 billion. The decline in the rocketmaker’s valuation easily overshadowed a 13 per cent surge in Tesla stock. Despite losing $68 billion in a single month, Musk still commands a fortune more than double that of runner-up Jeff Bezos. Amazon’s founder saw his net worth fall by $8 billion to $361 billion after Amazon stock dipped by 4 per cent.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin sustained the second and third largest losses of the month as shares in parent company Alphabet plummeted by more than 18 per cent. Page, ranked third globally, lost $53 billion to settle at $233 billion, while Brin, occupying fifth place, lost $49 billion, leaving his fortune at $214 billion.
Michael Dell and Mark Zuckerberg tied for the fourth largest downturn, with each losing $40 billion. A 21 per cent drop in Dell Technologies stock reduced Michael Dell’s fourth-ranked fortune to $229 billion. Simultaneously, a 15 per cent decline in Meta stock lowered sixth-ranked Zuckerberg’s wealth to $211 billion.
Among the top ten, only former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer and Berkshire Hathaway leader Warren Buffett recorded gains over the month, adding $1 billion and $13 billion respectively, while maintaining their ninth and tenth rankings. Forbes, which has tracked global billionaires since 1987 and identified 3,428 billionaires in its March 2026 annual ranking, monitors these daily wealth movements on its Real-Time Billionaires list.
Elon Musk: $869 Billion (Down $68 Billion)
Elon Musk, 55, retains the global top spot with an estimated net worth of $869 billion. Residing in Austin, Texas, the US citizen made financial history on 12 June 2026 when rocketmaker SpaceX went public on the Nasdaq, closing its first trading day with a market capitalisation near $2.2 trillion and making Musk the world’s first trillionaire. SpaceX stock has fallen 6 per cent since its debut. Musk serves as chairman, chief executive, and chief technical officer of SpaceX, holding a 38 per cent stake including options. SpaceX acquired Musk’s artificial intelligence and social media firm xAI in February 2026, following xAI’s prior merger with X (formerly Twitter) in March 2025.
Musk holds a nearly 11 per cent stake in electric vehicle maker Tesla ($1.6 trillion market cap), plus restricted stock that could yield another 8 per cent upon vesting. These restricted shares stem from a 2018 performance award voided by a Delaware judge in 2024 and reinstated by the Delaware Supreme Court in 2025. Under an April 2026 agreement, Musk exercised the options on 16 June into restricted stock that he forfeits unless he stays at Tesla through January 2028 as CEO or “an executive officer responsible for the Company’s product development or operations.” Forbes excluded these restricted shares—worth $115 billion before taxes—from his current fortune to ensure consistent treatment of unvested stock.
Forbes likewise excluded additional performance-based restricted shares that could boost Musk’s stakes in SpaceX and Tesla to 47 per cent and 29 per cent respectively. To earn these shares, Musk must achieve ambitious targets: growing SpaceX’s market cap to $7.5 trillion, Tesla’s market cap to $8.5 trillion, and establishing a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million residents. During SpaceX’s earnings call on 20 October, Musk revealed that special committees at both companies are evaluating a potential merger, which would likely force Musk to forfeit nearly all performance-based restricted Tesla shares.
Born in South Africa, Musk moved to Canada before his 18th birthday, working various jobs before enrolling at Queen’s University in Ontario and later transferring to the University of Pennsylvania to earn an economics degree. In 2000, he merged his online bank [suspicious link removed] with Peter Thiel’s financial outfit to form PayPal, which eBay bought in 2002 for $1.4 billion. Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 in El Segundo, California, and joined Tesla in 2004 as investor and chairman, later obtaining co-founder status. Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015 as a non-profit but departed the board three years later after a failed power grab. He later sued OpenAI for compensation, but a judge dismissed the lawsuit on procedural grounds in May 2026, though Musk plans an appeal.
Musk first captured the title of world’s richest person in September 2021, regained it in June 2023, and reclaimed it in late May 2024. He became the first person worth $500 billion in October 2025, crossed $600 billion and $700 billion in December 2025, and surpassed $800 billion in February 2026. Politically, Musk has committed over $440 million to support Republican candidates in the upcoming US midterm elections.
Jeff Bezos: $361 Billion (Down $8 Billion)
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, 62, holds second place with $361 billion. Residing in Miami, Florida, Bezos recently took on the role of co-CEO at Prometheus, an “artificial general engineer” startup designed to “make it much easier for engineers to design physical objects.” The venture closed a funding round at a $41 billion valuation in June 2026, with Bezos holding an estimated 20 per cent stake—his first operational executive role since retiring as Amazon chief executive in 2021. In a wide-ranging May interview, Bezos voiced opinions on taxation, arguing that the bottom half of wage earners should pay zero income tax.
Bezos created e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 and remains executive chairman. In July 2021, he flew to space aboard a rocket built by his private firm Blue Origin, which he founded and has funded with nearly $30 billion. Blue Origin recently closed its first external funding round, raising $10 billion at a $140 billion valuation; Bezos retains over 93 per cent ownership.
After working at McDonald’s as a teenager and graduating from Princeton University, Bezos joined hedge fund D.E. Shaw in New York, where he met his first wife MacKenzie Scott. He started Amazon as an online bookseller in his Seattle garage before expanding into cloud storage and video streaming through Amazon Prime Video.
Following his 2019 divorce settlement, MacKenzie Scott received a 4 per cent Amazon stake, while Bezos kept 12 per cent. Bezos now owns 8 per cent after selling and donating shares. Since Amazon’s 1997 initial public offering, Bezos has sold over $49 billion worth of stock. Through Bezos Expeditions, he holds early investments in tech firms including Airbnb and Workday.
Larry Page: $233 Billion (Down $53 Billion)
Google co-founder Larry Page, 53, ranks third with $233 billion. Residing in Miami, Florida, Page co-founded Google with Stanford doctoral student Sergey Brin in 1998, serving as chief executive until 2001 and again from 2011 to 2015. He remains an Alphabet board member and controlling shareholder while developing a new manufacturing-focused artificial intelligence venture called Dynatomics.
Following late 2024 US Department of Justice demands for Google to divest its Chrome browser, a federal judge ruled in September 2025 that Google would not be required to sell Chrome. Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai notably attended Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 amidst the legal battle. Page, an early investor in asteroid mining company Planetary Resources (acquired by ConsenSys in 2018), recently purchased a home in Florida to avoid California’s proposed billionaire wealth tax. Spokespeople confirmed Page’s official Florida residency in October 2026 following Google’s office expansion lease in Miami.
Michael Dell: $229 Billion (Down $40 Billion)
Dell Technologies chairman and chief executive Michael Dell, 61, holds fourth place with $229 billion. Based in Austin, Texas, Dell launched his career at age 19 selling computer components from his University of Texas dorm room, grossing $80,000 during his freshman year. He created Dell Technologies in 2016 through a $60 billion merger with computer storage provider EMC.
Dell took his namesake firm public in 1988, took it private with Silver Lake Partners in 2013, and returned it to public markets in late 2018. Cloud software subsidiary VMware was spun off in 2021 before semiconductor giant Broadcom acquired it in 2023 for $69 billion, generating a 39 per cent payout for Dell. In December 2025, Dell and his wife pledged $6.25 billion to seed “Trump Accounts” with $250 each for 25 million American children.
Sergey Brin: $214 Billion (Down $49 Billion)
Alphabet co-founder Sergey Brin, 53, occupies fifth place with $214 billion. Residing in Crystal Bay, Nevada, Brin actively assists Alphabet with AI strategy, serving as a “core contributor” to Google’s Gemini AI chatbot released in December 2024. Brin serves on Alphabet’s board and remains a controlling shareholder.
In late November, Brin donated $1.1 billion worth of Alphabet stock, primarily to his health and environmental non-profit Catalyst4. To protect his wealth against California’s proposed 5 per cent billionaire wealth tax (Proposition 40)—which he spent over $100 million opposing—Brin acquired properties in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and changed his voter registration to Nevada in December 2025, as confirmed in October 2026. He also supports a California non-profit focused on affordable housing.
Mark Zuckerberg: $211 Billion (Down $40 Billion)
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, 42, ranks sixth with $211 billion. Residing in Palo Alto, California, Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook at Harvard University in 2004. He took Meta public in 2012 and retains a 13 per cent stake in the social networking giant, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp.
In October 2025, singer Billie Eilish famously asked attendees at the WSJ Innovator of the Year Awards—where Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan received top honours for disease prevention philanthropy—”If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire?” In February 2026, Zuckerberg and Chan attended Prada’s fashion show in Milan to highlight Meta’s smart glasses partnership with the luxury brand.
In August 2026, Meta agreed to an $18 billion legal settlement with 29 US states over claims its social platforms addicted children. To manage potential wealth tax liabilities while preserving voting control, Meta’s board approved a new non-voting share structure in October 2026, allowing Zuckerberg to sell shares while remaining in California.
Jensen Huang: $178 Billion (Down $22 Billion)
Nvidia co-founder, president, and chief executive Jensen Huang, 63, ranks seventh with $178 billion. Based in Los Altos, California, Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and took it public in 1999, retaining a 3 per cent stake. Under his leadership, Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) dominated computer gaming before powering the global AI boom, driving Nvidia to become the world’s first $5 trillion company in October 2025.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that US intelligence officials determined a Chinese businesswoman with ties to Huang passed information to Beijing. Nvidia defended the relationship as routine, maintaining that no trade secrets or national security details were compromised. Born in Taiwan, Huang lived in Thailand as a child before his family sent him to the US amidst regional civil unrest.
Larry Ellison: $172 Billion (Down $8 Billion)
Oracle co-founder, chairman, and chief technical officer Larry Ellison, 82, holds eighth place with $172 billion. Residing in Manalapan, Florida, near Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, Ellison teamed up with his son David in August 2025 to merge Paramount and Skydance Media. In October 2026, Skydance completed a $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, uniting CBS, CNN, HBO Max, Paramount+, Warner Bros, and Paramount Pictures under single ownership.
Ellison, who owns the Hawaiian island Lanai (valued at over $1 billion), built his core fortune through Oracle, which he co-founded in 1977. Oracle joined a consortium that bought TikTok’s US business at a $14 billion valuation in January 2026. Ellison briefly became the second person ever worth $400 billion in September 2025 following a 36 per cent single-day stock surge, though Oracle shares have since halved from their peak.
Steve Ballmer: $162 Billion (Up $1 Billion)
Former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, 70, ranks ninth with $162 billion, adding $1 billion as Microsoft stock rose 2 per cent. Residing in Hunts Point, Washington, Ballmer joined Microsoft as employee No. 30 after dropping out of Stanford’s MBA programme and led the tech giant from 2000 to 2014. Upon retiring, he bought the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion—now valued at $7.8 billion—and invested $2 billion in the new Intuit Dome stadium.
On 2 September 2026, the NBA imposed a $30 million fine and a one-year suspension on Ballmer, stripping the Clippers of five first-round draft picks following an investigation into salary cap evasion involving star player Kawhi Leonard. Ballmer accepted the penalty “to put this chapter behind us,” despite there “still [being] disagreements concerning the findings in the report.” Ballmer holds 4 per cent of Microsoft stock as its largest individual shareholder and has donated over $6.5 billion to philanthropic causes since 2014.
Warren Buffett: $154 Billion (Up $13 Billion)
Berkshire Hathaway leader Warren Buffett, 96, ranks tenth with $154 billion, adding $13 billion as Berkshire shares jumped 9 per cent. Renowned as the “Oracle of Omaha,” the US congressman’s son bought his first stock at age 11 and filed his first tax return at age 13. Buffett retired as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway—owner of Geico, Duracell, and Dairy Queen—at the end of December 2025, with his son Howard Buffett assuming the chairmanship in September 2026.
Co-founder of the Giving Pledge in 2010 alongside Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, Buffett has pledged to give away 99 per cent of his wealth, donating $68 billion to date. In June 2026, The Wall Street Journal reported that Buffett paused his annual midyear stock contribution to the Gates Foundation pending a review into the non-profit’s historical links with Jeffrey Epstein.
