Jeff Bezos loses $21 billion in hours as Amazon shares slump

Shares of the e-commerce company were down 14% on Friday after it reported a quarterly loss and the slowest sales growth since 2001. Bezos’s net worth fell to $148.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, from a peak this year of more than $210 billion.

The world’s 500 richest people lost a total of more than $54 billion Friday amid the broader market rout, according to the Bloomberg index. The benchmark S&P 500 Index fell 3.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index slid 4.5%, closing out its worst month since 2008.

Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc., speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. Bezos spoke about Amazons sustainability efforts a day before workers around the world, including more than 1,000 of his own employees, are scheduled to walk out to spotlight climate change.

Bezos, 58, the world’s richest person after Elon Musk, is now the third-biggest wealth loser this year, with his fortune dropping nearly $44 billion since Jan. 1.

Amazon is contending with higher labor costs following a hiring binge during the pandemic and a surge in inflation that may hold back sales.

The company posted a net loss of $3.8 billion in the quarter ended March 31, compared with profit of $8.1 billion in the same period last year.