Google co-founder Sergey Brin loses $29 billion in single day market rout
Google shares suffered their steepest drop since going public in 2004.
The short version
- Jewish billionaire Sergey Brin saw $29 billion vanish from his net worth.
- Investors panicked over slowing search growth and heavy artificial intelligence spending.
- Alphabet lost over $500 billion in market value within 24 hours.
Check your portfolio today. Alphabet, which owns Google and YouTube, just suffered its steepest stock decline since the tech giant went public in 2004, wiping out more than $500 billion in market value in less than 24 hours, according to The Times of India.
Jewish billionaire Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder and one of the world's richest individuals, witnessed $29 billion wiped from his fortune in a single day. Fellow co-founder Larry Page reportedly lost around $31 billion on paper, pushing their combined wealth decline to nearly $60 billion.
The selloff hammered shares down more than 12 percent, tumbling from $321.89 to about $283.29. Investors panicked after Google reported that core search revenue growth slowed to 12 percent, missing expectations of 15 percent, while quarterly revenue hit $127.6 billion. Wall Street also grew anxious over Alphabet's aggressive artificial intelligence spending, which reached $51.4 billion during the quarter and swallowed about 40 percent of revenue for data centres and infrastructure.
Google Cloud was a bright spot with revenue more than doubling to about $30.7 billion, but it was not enough to calm market nerves. The losses remain unrealized, meaning they exist only on paper unless the founders sell their shares. A rebound in Alphabet stock would restore the wealth, but the rout shows how fast paper fortunes can vanish when Wall Street turns.
Photo: Austin McKinley, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
