Here are the top 20 billionaires who have lost over $700 billion so far this year

NEW DELHI: Just a year ago, tech billionaires were seeing their wealth soar with markets near all-time highs and venture capitalist pumping large sums into startups.
But 12 months on, it's quite a different financial landscape as stock prices tumble and inflation surges.
The wealthiest tycoons are taking major losses, with the 20 biggest losers accounting for a combined decline of over $700 billion compared to 12 months ago.

Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has topped the list with an eyewatering loss of $87.3 billion in paper wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the richest people in the world.
Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, lost $72.6 billion; while Twitter's new owner Elon Musk's wealth decreased by $66.4 billion.
Disappointing earnings reports from a slew of tech giants this week have stoked recession fears, pushed stock prices lower and weighed on the fortunes of the world’s wealthiest people.

For many executives and founders, their net worth is at least partially tied up in shares of their businesses. That means big swings in their companies’ stock prices can have profound impacts on measures of wealth.

The only woman among the top 20 richest tech moguls is MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist who built her fortune creating Amazon with her now ex-husband, Jeff Bezos. More than $31 billion vanished from her net worth this year, although that can be attributed in part to the hefty checks she has been cutting.
She has pledged to give away—and has already donated—billions of dollars to organizations, including food banks, Girl Scouts of the USA and historically Black colleges and universities.
Bucking the trend has been Indian tycoon Gautam Adani who saw his personal wealth increase by $48 billion.

Tik-Tok founder Zhang Yiming's fortune increased by $10.4 billion.
Among the richest Indians besides Adani, industrialist Mukesh Ambani lost $3.3 billion, while founder and chairman emeritus of HCL Technologies Limited, Shiv Nadar, lost $8.4 billion.

Founder of Wipro Azim Premji's wealth decreased by $17.3 billion -- the most among Indian billionaires.
The paper losses for many of the world’s biggest moguls come after the collective wealth of billionaires grew more during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic than between 1987 and 2010, the antipoverty group Oxfam International reported earlier this year.

In the early months of the pandemic, Oxfam reported, a new billionaire was created every 30 hours.
(With inputs from agencies)