Who Made, Lost The Most Money In 2018

Among the list of billionaires who made the most money in 2018 are two names that are unfamiliar to many investors: Tim Sweeney and Lei Jun. 

What Happened

2018 was a rough — comparatively — year for billionaires, as the 500 individuals who make up the Bloomberg Billionaires Index lost a combined $511 billion this year, Bloomberg reported. This marks only the second annual drop in wealth among the 500 richest people in the world since Bloomberg created the index in 2012.

Among those who made the most money in 2018 is Sweeney, a newcomer to the Bloomberg index.

He's the CEO of Epic Games, which is best known for the hit video game "Fortnite." Sweeney's net worth soared from less than $1 billion to around $7.2 billion, Bloomberg said. 

But the biggest winner in 2018 is Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN CEO Jeff Bezos, who is $24 billion richer today than he was a year ago at $123 billion. The second biggest winner by dollar amount is China's Jun, the founder of Xiaomi who is $8.6 billion richer.

Biggest Losers

Thirty-four year old Facebook, Inc. FB co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will end 2018 with a net worth of $53 billion, which is $20 billion less than what he started the year with.

The social media giant oversaw several headline-grabbing scandals involving user privacy.

Amancio Ortega, owner of the Zara clothing line, lost $17 billion in 2018 as the retail chain suffered from higher costs and a challenging business environment in Europe and Asia.

Three of the 10 biggest losers in 2018 were Chinese billionaires, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA co-founder and executive chairman Jack Ma.

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