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Global billionaires lost nearly $2 trillion in 2022

We have stepped into the new year over the past weekend but the horrors of 2022 do not seem to catch a break. The previous year, 2022, was a bad one for billionaires who went through a hard time. With tech billionaires having to let go of their workforce in massive layoffs, crypto moguls getting arrested, the stock market plummeting, wars, and alarming inflation, it was definitely a challenging year, to say the least. However, the total amount of wealth lost by tech giants and billionaires, in general, was a whopping $1.9 trillion dollars!

According to a report by Forbes, the planet’s billionaires lost $1.9 trillion in 2022. The collective wealth of the elite dropped from $13.8 trillion to $11.9 trillion, whereas, the number of billionaires around the world also took a hit. Reports suggest that nearly 150 people lost billionaire status this year with the overall number dropping from 2,671 to 2,523 billionaires. Big names like Sam Bankman and the controversial Kanye West famously lost their billionaire status in 2022.

However, the horrors are truly witnessed in the tech sector where around 300 tech billionaires lost $1 trillion in the previous year. After showing an outlandish boom in 2020-21, the tech sector took massive hits costs plummeting, layoffs, and dropping share prices. Forbes reports that Amazon shares have dropped nearly 50%, wiping off $80 billion from Jeff Bezos’ net worth. Whereas, Google’s parent Alphabet and Microsoft’s stock slid 36% and 27% respectively. Mark Zuckerberg took one of his biggest hits this year with Meta’s stock falling down by 66% amounting to $78 billion wiped off his net worth. The biggest loser of 2022 was, however, Elon Musk who lost over $115 billion in 2022. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has been busy working his way to ‘restore free speech’ on Twitter which has concerned investors and stakeholders leading to a massive net worth loss. What do you think 2023 looks like for tech billionaires around the world?

Tech This Week – November 5, 2022

You already know what time it is! It’s time for Exhibit’s weekly tech roundup, Tech This Week. Similar to every week until now, There are of course new and exciting things happening in the world of tech! And we’re here to serve them to you in a plate full of delights. So without further ado let’s begin!

WhatsApp new features

Whatsapp has been adding new features under its kitty and this week the messaging app announced three new features. Now, users can add up to 1024 members in a group chat! That sounds like a village! However, there are also new changes in the video call feature where now 32 members can be added up to a call. Whatsapp will also be soon rolling out the option where users will able to text themselves.

Big changes to Twitter

We were surely excited when Elon Musk took over the command of Twitter. But things went sour quickly when the hip CEO announced that users will have to pay a monthly fee of $8 in order to stay verified on the platform. It was also noted that the use of racist slurs on Twitter like the N-Word had grown exponentially by 500% after Musk took command. Twitter employees were also seen sleeping in the office in order to meet the tight deadlines by Musk. It is to be seen whether this change in Twitter will lead it to become a better platform or lead to its eventual irrelevance.

Google’s language AI model

Google is one of the pioneers in AI technology and has now announced a single AI model that will support around 1K of the most spoken languages in the world! Google believes that by creating a model of this size, it will make it easier to bring various AI functionalities to languages that are poorly represented in the online space.

iPhone 14 production affected

China’s Foxconn area in Zhengzhou went into a lockdown in recent times which made major headlines. However, the lockdown did not stop Foxconn from halting production of the iPhone 14 as it ordered workers to live in the factory complex and work on the production during an active covid outbreak. However, many workers were then seen fleeing the area, climbing fences, and walking around the Foxconn vicinity which has led to the iPhone 14 production getting affected.

Netflix is now cheaper than before!

The OTT giant Netflix has now launched its basic ad-supported platform in several countries. Under this plan, users will be able to stream 720P content that will be limited to a single device support only. Netflix states that users will get 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour of content. However, the ad-supported plan has not been introduced yet in India.

Amazon Founder Sued

Amazon owner and billionaire – Jeff Bezos was sued by a former housekeeper who claims that she was subjected to racial discrimination by his staff. The former housekeeper also accused that they were forced to work 10 to 14 hours a day in unsanitary conditions without rest or meal breaks. The former housekeeper now seeks back pay and benefits as well as monetary damages.

iPhone India users to get 5G from next week

Apple will soon be rolling out the much-awaited software upgrade for the 5G network in India next week. The service will be made available with the iOS 16 beta software update. With this update, users of iPhone 14, 13, 12, and SE will be able to experience 5G.

Windows 11 Moment 2 update

Microsoft recently released new features on Windows 11 with the Moment 1 update. The company has decided to move away from major updates and focus on smaller updates over shorter periods of time. The rumor mill has it that the Moment 2 update is just around the corner.

AMD Radeon RX 7000 GPUs

Finally, AMD officially announced its next-gen Radeon RX GPUs today. The rumors about this new lineup of GPUs were making rounds on the internet for a long time. The first two Radeon RX 7000 GPUs are called Radeon RX 7900 XTX and the Radeon RX 7900 XT. The latest series will be using AMD’s latest RDNA 3 Graphical architecture. With the support of DisplayPort 2.1, the GPUs will support higher refresh rates on even 4K and 8K resolutions!

Jeff Bezos Offers NASA $2 Billion For Moon Mission Contract

Fresh off his trip to space, Founder and Chairperson of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, offered NASA a discount of at least $2 Billion on Monday. The catch being, the space agency has to agree upon giving his company, Blue Origin, a lucrative human lunar landing system contract.

The contract, which aims to send astronauts to the moon, was offered to his rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX earlier this year. Musk won the $2.9 billion bid to build a spacecraft to bring astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2024.

Bezos, in his open letter to Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator, said that Blue Origin would waive payments in the government’s current fiscal year and the next ones after that up to $2 billion. The company would accept a firm, fixed-priced contract and cover any system development cost overruns.

“Without competition, NASA’s short-term and long-term lunar ambitions will be delayed, will ultimately cost more, and won’t serve the national interest.”

Bezos added,

“We are convinced that, to America’s future in space, NASA must now quickly and assuredly return to the moon. All NASA needs to do is take advantage of this offer.”

The plea comes a week before the watchdog Government Accountability Office rules a formal protest of NASA’s award to SpaceX that Blue Origin filed earlier this year. Lori Garver, a former Deputy Administrator at NASA, said that the amendment might not be as simple as it sounds.

Lori said that Bezos’ offer is something NASA shouldn’t brush aside, but it might not work out the same way Blue Origin wants it to.

“I see this as a positive sign overall but it should not impact the current awards or strategy,” he said.

Garver thinks it is unlikely that the ‘new offer’ would change NASA’s mind about the current award. She believes tweaking NASA’s decision to award SpaceX could spawn new legal problems for the agency.

“NASA just couldn’t take offers because funding is offered. There’s absolutely nothing to stop Blue from moving forward with their own money to get in a better position to win something in the next round,” Garver adds.

Jeff Bezos and fellow Billionaire Richard Branson are the only two significant players in the space tourism market. Branson’s Virgin Galactic, which completed a crewed flight, has historically sold seats between $200,000. And $250,000 per ticket.

Bezos’ offer comes six days after he completed a trip to the edge of the space along with other crewmates. The company is bidding big to become the key player in the space tourism market.

Jeff Bezos Launch Into Space, Makes History

The richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, will fly to space this morning (Tuesday) on his company’s suborbital rocket.

A week after fellow billionaire Richard Brandson flew to the edge of space, it’s time for Bezos to make his attempt. Along with three other crew members, he will be taking a 10-minute flight onboard his Blue Origin New Shepard Rocket, developed by Bezos’s private space company.

Jeff Bezos, who recently stepped down as Amazon’s CEO, announced on Instagram that ‘he can’t wait for the excursion.’

If successful, the Amazon founder will make history for taking part in the first unpiloted suborbital flight with a civilian crew. But Bezos is not the only one who will be touching milestones on this trip.

Wally Funk, an 82-year old aviation icon, is one of the Mercury 13 women who underwent training in the 1960s to demonstrate that women are fit under NASA standards. With this trip, she will become the oldest person to reach space.

Another Dutch teenager, Oliver Daemen, will become the youngest astronaut to reach space. This 18-year-old physics student has taken the place of a $28 million auction winner who is now ‘too busy to make the trip. Oliver grabbed the seat for the flight as his dad was one of the runners up in the auction. It is still unclear how much he has paid for the ticket.

Oliver said, “I am super excited to go to space. I’ve been dreaming about this all my life and I will become the youngest astronaut ever. I am super excited to experience zero gravity. The flight to space will take only 10 minutes but these will be the most special 10 minutes of my life.”

Bezos’s brother Mark will also be travelling along with the crew. Talking about this in an Instagram post, Bezos wrote,

“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend.”

The New Shepherd will lift off from Van Horn, a remote town in the western desert of Texas. The capsule will not enter into orbit around Earth but instead will reach the edge of space. It will travel at an altitude of around 65 miles, and the crew will get to spend a few minutes in the weightlessness of microgravity and witness the curvature of Earth.

Other companies such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic crew heavily trained test pilots to stand ready if things go sideways. But Blue Origin decided to throw Bezos and other paying customers into the mission since the capsule is fully autonomous and requires no inputs from humans during the mission.