The world's 500 richest people lost nearly $1.4 trillion last year, Bloomberg estimated.

Combined with widespread inflation and aggressive central bank policy tightening, the year saw a dramatic drop for a group of billionaires whose fortunes grew to unfathomable heights during the COVID era of easy money. In most cases, the bigger the growth, the more dramatic the fall: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Changpeng Zhao and Mark Zuckerberg alone lost about $392 billion of their combined net worth.

There is good news for some billionaires, however. Gautam Adani of India surpassed Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in the wealth index, while some of the world's richest families, such as the Kochs and the Mars clan, also increased their wealth. Sports franchises have become increasingly valuable, becoming increasingly unaffordable to all but the 0.0001% of the wealthiest.

Musk, the richest man in the world at the time, lost $25.8 billion on Jan. 27 after Tesla Inc. warned of supply problems. It is the fourth biggest one-day drop in the history of the Bloomberg Wealth Index, and bodes well for Musk's difficult year both personally and financially.

Russia's wealthiest people collectively lost $46.6 billion on Feb. 24, the day of the invasion of Ukraine. Soon, authorities in the European Union, Britain and the United States imposed sanctions against Russian "oligarchs" and their companies, making it almost impossible for business tycoons to control their assets in the West.

China's markets are getting worse and worse, with $64.6 billion taken out of the fortunes of the country's richest people on March 14. They have lost another $164 billion in 2022 due to strenuous efforts to curb the spread of COVID, a sagging real estate market and increased focus on the technology industry, while trade tensions with the U.S. are having a negative impact on the world's second-largest economy.