Elon Musk’s fortune plunged almost $US62 billion. Jeff Bezos saw his wealth tumble by about $US63 billion. Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth was slashed by more than half.

All told, the world’s 500 richest people lost $US1.4 trillion in the first half of 2022, a dizzying decline that marks the steepest six-month drop ever for the global billionaire class.

It’s a sharp departure from the previous two years, when the fortunes of the ultra-rich swelled as governments and central banks unleashed unprecedented stimulus measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, juicing the value of everything from tech companies to cryptocurrencies.

With policymakers now raising interest rates to combat elevated inflation, some of the highest-flying shares – and the billionaires who own them – are losing altitude fast. Tesla had its worst quarter ever in the three months through June, while Amazon.com plummeted by the most since the dot-com bubble burst.

Though the losses are piling up for the world’s richest people, it only represents a modest move toward narrowing wealth inequality. Musk, Tesla’s co-founder, still has the biggest fortune on the planet, at $US208.5 billion, while Amazon’s Bezos is second with a $US129.6 billion net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

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Bernard Arnault, France’s richest person, ranks third with a $US128.7 billion fortune, followed by Bill Gates with $US114.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg index. They’re the only four that are worth more than $US100 billion – at the start of the year, 10 people worldwide exceeded that amount, including Zuckerberg, who is now 17th on the wealth list with $US60 billion.

Changpeng Zhao, the crypto pioneer who debuted on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in January with an estimated fortune of $US96 billion, has seen his wealth tumble by almost $US80 billion this year amid the turmoil in digital assets.

Contrarian impulse