President Donald Trump’s announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs sent ripples through Wall Street, leading to a significant loss in net worth for the world’s wealthiest individuals almost instantaneously.
On Wednesday, Trump revealed a baseline 10% tariff on imported products from all nations, set to be implemented on April 5, along with “individualized” tariffs soaring as high as 50% on various countries and regions. This declaration triggered a stock market crash: The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite all plunged by over 5% on Friday, following substantial declines on Thursday.
During this two-day downturn, the net worth of Elon Musk decreased by $30.9 billion, Jeff Bezos lost $23.49 billion, and Mark Zuckerberg saw a drop of $27.34 billion — making them the world’s top three billionaires according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. This marked the largest two-day loss reported by the index for the world’s 500 wealthiest individuals.
A significant portion of the wealth of Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg stems from their companies’ valuations: Tesla, Amazon, and Meta. The newly introduced tariffs are particularly impacting tech stocks, largely due to the industry’s dependence on manufacturing, computer chips, and IT services sourced from nations such as China, India, and Taiwan.
Trump’s tariffs included a 32% rate for Taiwan, 26% for India, and an increase on China that raises its total tariff to 54% on imported goods. A potential slowdown in American economic growth could also adversely affect advertising revenues for Amazon and Meta, as noted by CNBC’s Investing Club with Jim Cramer on Thursday.
Musk, who collaborates closely with Trump as a senior advisor and the unofficial head of the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was already facing net worth declines in 2025. Tesla reported sales of 336,681 vehicles in the first quarter of this year, a 13% decrease compared to last year, making it the company’s most challenging quarter since 2022.
Overall, Musk’s fortune has suffered a blow of $130 billion so far this year, according to the Bloomberg index. His current estimated net worth stands at $302 billion, significantly higher than Bezos at $193 billion and Zuckerberg at $179 billion.
However, not all billionaires experienced losses during the downturn on Thursday and Friday. Dan Gilbert, co-founder of Rocket Mortgage and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, gained $1.91 billion on Friday, bringing his net worth to $32.4 billion, as reported by Bloomberg’s index. Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim added $2.9 billion to his wealth on Thursday before losing $5.48 billion on Friday, according to the index.
Slim, 85, who was named the richest person globally by Forbes from 2010 to 2013, began his career as a stock trader in Mexico during the 1960s. His estimated net worth of $80 billion is primarily derived from his longstanding industrial conglomerate Grupo Carso and the Latin American telecom company América Móvil, as per Forbes.
Slim suggested that the tariffs introduced by the Trump administration are likely to be temporary and mainly serve as a strategy for negotiation. He conveyed this in an interview with Bloomberg published on Tuesday. On Thursday, Trump expressed a willingness to negotiate tariff rates with other nations, despite White House aides asserting otherwise.
“The U.S. doesn’t have any alternative but to change its approach,” Slim remarked.
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