World's richest people suffer $108 billion loss on DeepSeek fuelled tech selloff

A tech selloff fuelled by Chinese AI developer DeepSeek wiped off a combined $108 billion from the world's 500 richest people's wealth, led by Nvidia Corp. co-founder Jensen Huang.

According to Bloomberg data, billionaires with fortunes linked to artificial intelligence emerged as the worst losers. Hunag's fortune declined by 20% or $20.1 billion while Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison’s $22.6 billion loss was larger in absolute terms, but represented just 12% of his fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Inc., lost $13 billion, while Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, co-founder of Binance, lost $12.1 billion.

Overall billionaires from the tech sector saw $94 billion in wealth erosion, nearly 85% of the Bloomberg index’s total decline, as US tech stocks took a sharp beating amid fears of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek challenging America's dominance in the sector.

The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 3.1% on Monday, and the S&P 500 dropped 1.5%.

Hangzhou-based DeepSeek has been developing AI models since 2023, but the company first came onto the radar of many Western investors this weekend as its free DeepSeek R1 chatbot app topped download charts worldwide, Bloomberg reported.

Reportedly, DeepSeek cost just $5.6 million to develop, challenging the narratives by many Silicon Valley-based companies of the need for massive capital spending to develop the strongest models.

Similar Playbook

Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, companies like Meta, Alphabet (Google), and Microsoft have made billions from the rise of AI. These companies have spent large amounts of money to build and run AI systems.

Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said the company plans to spend $60 billion to $65 billion on AI projects this year, much more than expected. In total, big tech companies are set to spend $200 billion on capital projects by 2025, according to a Bloomberg report.

Even though these companies haven't made much money from AI yet, the stock market has boosted the value of US tech companies. This has made their owners incredibly rich. Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, has seen his wealth grow by almost eight times, reaching $121 billion. Zuckerberg’s wealth has increased by 385%, reaching $229 billion. Jeff Bezos from Amazon saw his wealth grow by 133%, reaching $254 billion.

While some tech billionaires like Huang and Larry Ellison lost money, others, like Zuckerberg and Bezos, saw their wealth rise. Zuckerberg made $4.3 billion, and Bezos gained about $632 million.

(With inputs from agencies)