After a turbulent few days on the stock market, fueled by rising tension between China and the U.S. over trade agreements as well as hostile attention towards tech companies for its data-use standards, technology shares continued its decline on Tuesday. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.9%.
The fortunes of two of the world’s biggest tech titans suffered big losses. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg closed Tuesday $3.1 billion poorer while Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, the richest man on Earth, ended the day down $4.6 billion, at $124.1 billion.
Since March 17, when news first broke about the scandal involving Cambridge Analytica’s improper use of data gathered via Facebook, Zuckerberg’s fortune has fallen by nearly $13 billion. Forbes pegs his net worth at the close of markets Tuesday at $61.3 billion. He’s ranked seventh richest in the world, down from fifth richest as of mid-February.
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Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in several British and American newspapers on Sunday to apologize for the social media giant’s role in Cambridge Analytica data incident. “This was a breach of trust, and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time,” the ad reads. “We’re now taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Amazon’s stock, meanwhile, fell alongside other tech stocks on Tuesday. After closing Monday in the green, Amazon stock dropped 3.7% on Tuesday. Bezos, who founded the e-commerce giant from a Seattle garage in 1994, owns 16% of the company’s stock.
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Bezos overtook Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as the richest man on Earth in October 2017. He is also the only centi-billionaire on the Forbes billionaire rankings. – ,