ISTANBUL

Seven out of the world’s 10 richest people lost a combined wealth of $170.3 billion so far as geopolitical tensions intensified worldwide with the start of a massive conflict in the Middle East.

Global markets showed a positive trend at the start of the year, while protests in Iran, the US intervention in Venezuela, the diplomatic crisis between China and Japan, and ongoing geopolitical tensions worldwide, amid the US’ plans to annex Greenland, unsettled investors.

The tensions that began with the US and Israel’s joint attacks on Iran on Feb. 28 escalated into a widespread conflict with Tehran’s subsequent retaliations, leading to severe market downturns.

Of the seven out of 10 that saw their fortunes erode, Bernard Arnault, CEO of French fashion holding conglomerate LVMH, saw the largest decline in wealth with $55.4 billion, as his fortune fell to $153 billion.

US tech giant Oracle’s founder Larry Ellison’s fortune fell $52.4 billion during the same period to $195 billion, followed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with a $30.5 billion decline to $203 billion.

US tech and e-commerce titan Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos saw his fortune decline by $23.3 billion, followed by Google co-founder Larry Page with $21.9 billion; another Google co-founder Sergey Brin with $20.4 billion, and chipmaker Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang with $10.1 billion.

Meanwhile, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, managed to increase his wealth, unlike his billionaire counterparts.

Musk’s wealth surged by $24.2 billion since the start of the year, bringing the total to a whopping $644 billion.

Musk lost part of his fortune amid sharp market fluctuations, but his net worth remained above the level at the start of the year.

Grocery chain giant Walmart’s heirs also saw their fortunes increase in this period.

Jim Carr’s wealth surged by $9.8 billion, and Samuel Robson Walton’s fortune increased by $9.7 billion.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim