Shares of Microsoft, one of the world’s largest companies, which was started by billionaire Bill Gates, fell drastically, the biggest fall in the last five years. This stock crash significantly reduced the wealth of the company’s investors, causing a loss of $357 billion (approximately more than ₹32 lakh crore). This loss suffered by the IT giant is more than the wealth of many rich people included in the top 10 billionaires of the world. Let us know what happened to the company.
Huge fall of 10% in a single day
On Thursday, Microsoft shares saw their biggest decline since 2020, with the company’s stock falling 10%. This is the biggest fall in a single day in the last five years. This led to a massive $357 billion decline in the IT company’s market value, bringing Microsoft’s market cap down to $3.22 trillion by the end of trading. IT stock opened in the red at $439.99, lower than the previous closing, and then fell to a low of $421.02.
Why did Microsoft shares fall?
Regarding the reasons behind this sudden and huge fall in Microsoft shares, reports suggest that the company’s earnings report disappointed investors, which worsened the sentiment and led to massive selling. Among the shortcomings investors noted in Microsoft’s report was a 39% growth figure for Azure and other cloud services, which was below StreetAccount’s estimate of 39.4%. Additionally, Microsoft forecast revenue from its personal computing segment, which includes Windows, for the fiscal third quarter at about $12.6 billion, below estimates of $13.7 billion, and operating margins were also lower than expected. Amy Hood, Microsoft’s finance chief, argued that cloud results could have been even better if the company had provided more data center infrastructure to customers instead of prioritizing its own internal needs. Analyst Ben Ritzes said Microsoft needs to build data centers more quickly.
Many billionaires lost more than their wealth
Microsoft’s stock crash has caused the company’s market value to fall so much in just one day, which is more than the combined net worth of all the billionaires included in the list of the world’s top 10 billionaires, except Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the world’s second richest person Larry Page has a net worth of $289 billion, third richest person Sergey Brin has a net worth of $269 billion, fourth richest person Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $264 billion, fifth richest person Mark Zuckerberg has a net worth of $260 billion, sixth richest person is Larry Ellison ($222 billion), seventh richest person is Bernard Arnault ($183 billion). Billion), which is higher than the net worth of eighth-ranked Jensen Huang ($159 billion), ninth-richest person Steve Ballmer ($152 billion) and tenth-ranked Warren Buffett ($143 billion).
