A fresh wave of tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump on April 2 sent shockwaves through global financial markets causing a downfall in billionaire fortunes. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index the top 500 richest people in the world collectively lost around USD 208 billion (roughly around Rs 17790520800000.00) in a single day making it one of the worst financial hits since the COVID-19 outbreak. This was the fourth-largest single-day drop in the index’s 13-year history. The biggest brunt was felt by American billionaires with nine out of the ten worst-hit individuals being from the US. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg took the hardest hit losing nearly USD 17.9 billion as Meta’s stock crashed by 9 per cent. Right behind him was Amazon founder Jeff Bezos whose net worth shrank by USD 15.9 billion after Amazon shares also plunged 9 per cent — their sharpest drop since 2022. Elon Musk the face of Tesla and a vocal crypto supporter lost USD 11 billion when Tesla’s stock fell by 5.5 per cent. He stood as the third-biggest loser of the day. The widespread panic triggered by the tariffs led to a major stock market sell-off on April 4 which some analysts referred to as a “bloodbath.” Investors feared that the new trade measures could seriously damage global commerce and economic stability. Global billionaires take major hit after Trump’s tariff move Trump’s latest tariff announcement didn’t just jolt markets — it also dealt a major blow to the world’s richest individuals including many of his fellow Americans and even some of his close business allies. In the US the wealth slide was massive. Michael Dell saw his fortune shrink by USD 9.53 billion while Oracle’s Larry Ellison lost about $8.1 billion. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang was down by USD 7.36 billion and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin dropped USD 4.79 billion and USD 4.46 billion respectively. Even Thomas Peterffy a major player in finance lost USD 4.06 billion. Outside the US the pain was just as real. Zhang Congyuan founder of China’s Huali Industrial Group a shoe-making giant lost USD 1.2 billion wiping out 13 per cent of his net worth in one day. Bernard Arnault the French luxury tycoon behind LVMH took a hit of USD 6 billion. And Tobi Lütke CEO and co-founder of Shopify in Canada saw 17 per cent  of his wealth vanish a loss of around USD 1.5 billion. This financial wipeout highlights just how fragile global wealth can be when economic uncertainty strikes. Trump’s move sent shockwaves across markets with even his longtime business ally Elon Musk caught in the fallout. According to Bloomberg more than half of the world’s top 500 billionaires lost money that day — with an average dip of 3.3 per cent in net worth. The message is clear: no one’s fortune is fully immune when markets get rattled.