Tech companies have not escaped the sell-off hitting capital markets. But how much has it cost each of the tech billionaire founders?
Using market cap changes and publicly shared data on stock holdings CBR got is calculator out and looked at how fortunes have changed between December 30 2015 and January 27 2016.

 

1. Jeff Bezos – Amazon

Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $46.7bn and owns around 18% of online retailer Amazon. On December 30 2015, Amazon had market capital of $325.31bn, a number which has plummeted to today’s market capital of $280.6bn.

This means that back in December Jeff Bezos could have cashed in his shares for $58.5bn, but the markets have taken their toll, with those same shares are now worth $50.5bn.

Loss of $8 billion

 

2. Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook

Zuckerberg, the chairman, chief exec and founder of social networking giant Facebook, is worth $47.1 billion. He currently owns around 24% in the networking giant. At the end of last year those shares, with Facebook having a market cap of £303.33bn, were worth $72.8bn. However, a little over a month later, the market cap had dropped to $275.3bn, with Zuckerberg’s shares worth $66bn.

Loss of $6.8bn

 

3. Sergey Brin – Alphabet (Google)

Under the new moniker Alphabet, Google were not immune to the volatile start of 2016. Brin, Google co-founder, is worth $34.3bn and could have collected $74.2bn back in December had he chosen to sell his 14% stake in the search giant. However, in January 2016, he will have to for $69.8bn as the market cap has dropped from $530.24bn to $498.9bn.

Loss of $4.4bn

 

4. Larry Ellison – Oracle

Oracle founder Larry Ellison owns 30% of the database-software giant. Even with such a large stake and a $49.3bn net worth, Ellison has made a loss in the first month of 2016. Back in December, Oracle’s market cap was a $155.61bn, valuing Ellison’s 30% stake at $46.68bn. However, in today the market cap stands at $148bn, reducing Ellison’s share value to $44.4bn.

Loss of $2.28bn

 

5. Bill Gates – Microsoft

You wouldn’t think that any stock price fluctuations would have any impact on the world’s richest man, but the markets this year may have put a small dent, a very small dent, into his vast fortune. Gates owns 4% of Microsoft, giving him an $18.06bn return on Microsoft’s December 15 market cap of $471.72bn. However, Microsoft’s market cap has dropped to $416.7bn today. Gates 4% is priced at $16.6bn.

Loss of $1.46bn

 

6. Elon Musk – Tesla

Elon Musk, the high profile tech leader behind SpaceX and Tesla electric cars, may be looking to change gears when it comes to his stock portfolio. With a net worth of $13bn, Musk holds a 24% stake in Tesla Motors. Back in December, Tesla had a market cap of $31.06bn, which has since dropped to $25.81bn in January. This means that Musk’s 24% shares have gone from $7.45bn to $6.54bn in value.

Loss of $910m

 

7. Marc Benioff – Salesforce

Marc Benioff, founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com, has placed his bets on cloud, and it seems to be paying off. Although still posting a lost, it is not in the billions like the others named in this list. With a net worth of $3.9bn, Benioff owns 5% in the SAAS and cloud computing company, with that amounting to $2.62bn in December 15 when the company’s market cap stood at $52.55bn. That market cap has dropped to $46.39bn in January 16, giving Benioff $2.3bn to work with.

Loss of $320m

 

You have seen the impact of the volatile markets on the founders, but how have the companies themselves performed? CBR gives you a hatful of 8 tech stocks in this recent article which looks at how Apple, Alphabet and ebay have done compared with IBM, Intel and others.