President Donald Trump’s tariff hike despatched shockwaves via world markets. Whereas billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg noticed their fortunes plummet, Warren Buffett remained resilient and within the inexperienced regardless of the chaos.
What Occurred: On April 2, President Trump introduced an aggressive new spherical of tariffs on items imported from over 100 nations, together with a 54% tariff on Chinese language items and 20% on EU imports.
The announcement despatched world markets right into a tailspin, leading to a large one-day loss for a number of the world’s wealthiest people, significantly within the tech trade.
Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc. TSLA and SpaceX, noticed his internet price drop by $19.9 billion, bringing his year-to-date losses to a staggering $130 billion, bringing him all the way down to $302 billion.
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Amazon.com, Inc.’s AMZN Jeff Bezos and Meta Platforms, Inc.’s META Mark Zuckerberg additionally confronted vital setbacks, with Bezos shedding $7.59 billion and Zuckerberg’s wealth dropping by $9.44 billion.
Yr-to-date, Bezos has misplaced $45.2 billion, whereas Zuckerberg is down $28.1 billion, in line with the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
In the meantime, luxurious items mogul Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis LVMHF, noticed his internet price fall by $5.23 billion as shares in his conglomerate tumbled in Paris, exacerbating his year-to-date losses.
Larry Ellison, Larry Web page, Sergey Brin, Steve Ballmer, and Invoice Gates have additionally seen main losses, with every shedding tens of billions in wealth.
Nevertheless, Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha,” stood out for weathering the storm. Buffett’s internet price dropped by $10.7 billion, however his year-to-date change remained within the inexperienced, with a $12.7 billion achieve.
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Why It is Necessary: The 92-year-old billionaire’s conservative strategy to investing has allowed him to stay comparatively unscathed in comparison with different tech giants.
In 2024, Berkshire Hathaway offloaded a staggering $134 billion price of shares, whereas barely deploying any of the proceeds.
The corporate halted buybacks fully within the second half of the 12 months, permitting its money pile to swell to a record-breaking $334 billion by year-end. On the time, critics questioned Buffett’s warning, particularly because the S&P 500 notched back-to-back years of 20%+ positive aspects.
Buffett additionally trimmed Berkshire’s large Apple Inc. AAPL stake from 49% to simply 23% of the portfolio and likewise pared down holdings in Financial institution of America — a transfer that got here simply weeks earlier than markets started to unravel.
Although Buffett has sharply criticized tariffs — as soon as calling them “an act of struggle” and likening them to a hidden tax on shoppers — he stays steadfastly optimistic about the way forward for American enterprise.
Reaffirming his long-term confidence, he beforehand acknowledged, “A majority of any cash I handle will at all times be in the US.”
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