Google cofounder and Alphabet board member Larry Page, whose fortune rose this past week despite ... [+]
Shares of Google-parent Alphabet rose nearly 6% on Friday following news that the company is laying off 6% of its employees.
Looming fears of a recession and weaker than expected earnings knocked many stocks lower in the middle of the past week, yet Friday announcements from several tech companies –including news of layoffs–led to a market rally–and rising fortunes for a number of billionaires. The Nasdaq rose 2.66% on Friday after Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced layoffs, and a reported uptick in subscribers from Netflix boosted the stock nearly 8.5% on Friday. The Nasdaq ended the week up 0.6%.
Here are some of the biggest billionaire winners of the past week:
Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin got a boost to their net worths on Friday after Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced it was laying off 12,000 employees. The company’s stock rose 5.7% Friday following the news, which lifted its founders’ fortunes. Page’s net worth increased by $4.9 billion in the week through Friday, January 20, to an estimated $85.3 billion, while Brin ended the week up $4.5 billion, worth an estimated $81.7 billion as of Friday evening, according to Forbes’ calculations.
The Tesla and Twitter CEO’s fortune was up $7 billion to $153 billion as Tesla stock rose 9% this week–most of that on Friday, January 20. Musk’s $44 billion Twitter acquisition significantly lowered the value of his Tesla stake last year. He ranks second richest in the world behind Bernard Arnault, head of the French luxury goods firm conglomerate LVMH. Arnault surpassed Musk in December 2022.
Amid the grim news for many cryptocurrency firms, including the bankruptcy filing by crypto lender Genesis on Friday, Bitcoin has staged a comeback, rising 34% in value in the past month. Coinbase CEO and cofounder Brian Armstrong has seen a small uptick in his fortune. The billionaire head of the cryptocurrency exchange has gained $200 million in the past week, a 10% uptick, to $2.3 billion as Coinbase’s stock has risen 64% since the start of the year.
Not every billionaire had an up week. The 92-year-old Oracle of Omaha saw his fortune decrease by $2.5 billion to $107.8 billion in the week through Friday. Berkshire Hathaway’s B shares, which had been ticking up performing well at the start of the month, fell by 2.2% this past week. Some of the investment company’s stockholdings, like Bank of America and Coca-Cola, ended the week with lower share prices.
