Billionaire Zoom Founder’s Fortune Is Down 20% This Week After Vaccine News

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST

he market jumped on Monday after pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that, amid ongoing trials, its Covid-19 vaccine was 90% effective, and it rallied again on Friday. The S&P 500 was up 2.2% for the week, hitting an all-time high on Friday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the week up 4.1%. However, not all companies benefited from the news. Stocks of companies that have thrived during the pandemic, including Facebook, Amazon and Zoom, fell sharply this week.

Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom Video Communications, lost $4.2 billion in net worth over the past week, representing 19% of his fortune. Before the Pfizer news, Yuan’s rise had been nearly unstoppable as Zoom became the de facto meeting platform of the corona-age. When he appeared on Forbes’ billionaires list in April, he was worth $5.5 billion. By July, he was up to $11 billion. After that, it took him only three months to further double his net worth to $22 billion.

With the Pfizer announcement potentially paving the way for in-office work and social gatherings to resume, Zoom’s stock fell 25% between Friday, November 6 and Tuesday, November 10. The stock gained some ground over the course of the week to cut its loss to 19%.

Amazon stock, meanwhile, stock fell by 5.5% over the course of the week, knocking $9.8 billion off Jeff Bezos’ net worth and $3.4 billion off the net worth of MacKenzie Scott, Bezos’ ex-wife. Luckily for Bezos, he made a well-timed transaction the week before, cashing out $3 billion worth of his shares while Amazon stock was up after the presidential election. Forbes estimates that, after taxes, he took home $2.3 billion.

(Photo by Christof STACHE / AFP) (Photo by CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP via Getty Images)

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During last week’s rally, Facebook CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg also sold shares, worth $17.8 million—a rare move for him. This week, Facebook’s stock was down 5.6% following the vaccine news. Facebook has seen an uptick in active users since the pandemic started. Zuckerberg is now worth an estimated $101.7 billion, representing a drop of $6 billion over the past week.

The Pfizer news created ripples in markets outside the U.S. as well. Jiang Rensheng, who chairs vaccine Chinese vaccine firm Chongqing ZFSW Biological Products (known as Zhifei), took a $2.4 billion hit to his net worth this week. Zhifei is also developing a Covid-19 vaccine, which will go through phase three trials in Uzbekistan. Jiang, who has an estimated $18.2 billion fortune, has more than doubled his net worth since March.