Tech moguls who grinned behind Trump at inauguration lose billions in wake of his tariffs announcementTech executives had argued that backing Trump might improve U.S. regulatory reform and expand investments in AIJosh Marcusin San Francisco,Katie HawkinsonFriday 04 April 2025 16:13 BSTTrump insists 'everything is going well' as stock market plunges over tariffsSign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailGet our free Inside Washington emailI would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read ourprivacy policyTech billionaires who cozied up to Donald Trump were some of the biggest losers - shedding billions in net worth and values of their companies - in Thursdays stock market losses as Wall Street reacted to the presidents tariff plan. Meta stock was down 8.96 percent, Amazon was down 8.98 percent, Google had fallen 3.92 percent, while Apple had plunged over 9 percent. White House adviser Elon Musk also felt the pain, with Tesla sliding 5.47 percent.The losses came as Wall Street saw a historically bad day on Thursday after Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs on nearly every U.S. trade partner. The Dow Jones saw a point drop that ranked in the top five worst of all time, while the NASDAQ suffered its largest one-day point drop in that markets history. The S&P 500 also saw its biggest one-day drop since March 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The market fell further on Friday, with the Dow dropping 1,000 at opening hours after China placed retaliatory 34 percent tariffs on U.S. goods.As a result of the sell-off, Metas Mark Zuckerberg personally lost $17.9 billion, while Amazon founder Jeff Bezoss wealth declined $16 billion and Musk was down $8.7 billion, according to an analysis from Forbes.Three men became close to Trump during the transition and donated to his efforts. They were also seen at his inauguration. Musk has become Trumps first buddy and is helping spearhead Trumps efforts to shrink the federal government. Still, their companies could be hit hard by Trumps tariff plan, which is expected to raise prices on many goods brought in from overseas. Executives Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Jeff Bezos of Amazon attend Donald Trumps inauguration. Their tech companies lost billions in Thursdays stock market losses after Trump announced his tariff plan (Getty Images)While tech moguls lost a fortune on Thursday, Musk is still the worlds richest man, according to Forbes, with a net worth of $368.6 billion. Bezos is still at No. 2, with a net worth of $191.3 billion, while Zuckerberg is in third place with $178.6 billion. All told, the market plunge wiped away $208 billion from the worlds richest 500 people, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the fourth largest one-day decline in the trackers 13-year history. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday a market decline was a sign of investors correcting for months of AI hype and over-priced tech stocks, calling it a Mag 7 problem, not a MAGA problem, a reference to the Magnificent Seven tech stocks Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and chip-maker Nvidia.Throughout the 2024 election season, Trump courted an unusual level of support from Big Tech for a hard-right Republican.The market plunge wiped away $208 billion from the worlds richest 500 people -including Elon Musk. The Tesla owner has become close with Trump in recent months and is leading efforts to shrink the federal government (AFP via Getty Images)During the campaign, Elon Musk donated more than $290 million to Trump and Republican-affiliated efforts. Meta and Amazon both gave $1 million to Trumps inauguration, while Apples Tim Cook personally donated another million. Ahead of Trump taking office, tech CEOs expressed optimism Trump might slash regulation and support the burgeoning artificial intelligence field, where U.S. companies are in an arms race with China.I am very optimistic that President Trump is serious about this regulatory agenda, Bezos said in December. If I can help him do that, Im going to help him, because we do have too much regulation in this country.I think theres a real opportunity in this moment, Googles Sundar Pichai added that month. One of the constraints for A.I. could be the infrastructure we have in this country, including energy. The rate at which we can build things. I think there are real areas where I think hes thinking about and committed to making a difference. So hopefully we can make progress there.Other companies appeared to court the Trump administration with preemptive policy changes, such as Meta, which rolled back diversity and content-moderation policies, while appointing Trump ally and UFC president Dana White to its board.The administration has been a mixed bag since for these tech firms.Throughout the 2024 election season, Trump courted an unusual level of support from Big Tech for a hard-right Republican - as both Musk and Besoz attended inauguration events for Trump (AP)Vice President J.D. Vance, himself a former tech venture capitalist, has been outspoken against what he sees as European regulator overreach against U.S. tech companies.The Trump administration is troubled by reports that some foreign governments are considering tightening the screws on U.S. tech companies with international footprints, he said at a conference in February. Now America cannot and will not accept that.Zuckerberg has reportedly been lobbying Trump for assistance heading off a potential effort from regulators to force Facebook to allow European users to access its Facebook and Instagram platforms without facing personalized ads, which could be a major hit to the firms business model.The White House has also thrown its support behind a joint OpenAI-Oracle-SoftBank venture called Stargate, which intends to invest up to $500 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure.At the same time, if the market continues to tank, and if, as some firms predicts, a recession arrives within the next 12 months, it could have a major impact on U.S. AI capabilities.Developing AI requires data centers that use huge amounts of electricity, so much so that major tech firms have been on a spree of signing nuclear power agreements in recent months to secure long-term energy supplies.However, given the capital-intensive, multi-year nature of electricity generation projects, the tariff chaos could stall further long-term investments in the kind of infrastructure tech firms need to keep making AI.Join our commenting forumJoin thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their repliesMost PopularPopular videosSponsored Features