Wealth of World's 500 Richest People Plummets by USD108 Billion Amid DeepSeek AI Surge

(MENAFN) The world’s 500 wealthiest individuals saw their combined fortunes shrink by USD108 billion on Monday, driven by a tech selloff triggered by the rise of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI app. The decline hit billionaires with significant stakes in AI companies, including Nvidia’s co-founder Jensen Huang and Oracle’s Larry Ellison.

DeepSeek's AI assistant, launched just days earlier, rapidly gained popularity and overtook OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the top app on the Apple App Store over the weekend.

The startup claims to have developed its AI model at a fraction of the cost of competitors from dominant American firms. This sudden success caused a sharp drop in tech stock prices, sending shockwaves through the market. The NASDAQ Composite Index fell by 3.1 percent, while the S&P 500 dropped by 1.5 percent.

Nvidia's stock tumbled by 17 percent, losing roughly USD600 billion in value, and ceding its position as the world’s most valuable company to Apple. Huang’s wealth took a hit, shrinking by USD20.1 billion, a 20 percent decline. Oracle’s stock dropped around 14 percent, wiping out USD22.6 billion from Ellison's fortune, a 12 percent loss. Other notable losses included Dell’s Michael Dell, whose wealth fell by USD13 billion, and Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, who saw a USD12.1 billion decrease.

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