(Nov 6): SoftBank Group Corp founder Masayoshi Son and other tycoons across Asia saw billions erased from their fortunes as a global tech sell-off rippled through their companies on Friday.

Twenty-two billionaires from China, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea who rank in the world’s 500 richest lost more than US$21 billion (RM85 billion) in combined wealth as of 10am Hong Kong time, before paring that to more than US$18 billion, according to calculations from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Son was the biggest loser, with his fortune declining by US$3.9 billion to about US$29 billion.

Among the hardest hit were the firms at the heart of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. Those who lost US$1 billion or more include Takemitsu Takizaki of electronic sensor maker Keyence Corp, and Singapore’s richest person Jason Chang of ASE Technology Holding Co, which assembles and packages semiconductors.

Samsung Electronics Co shareholders Jay Y Lee, his mother and sister — one of Asia’s richest families — collectively lost about US$2.5 billion from their fortunes.

The turmoil also last month hit hedge funds including Tiger Global Management and Whale Rock Capital Management, as concerns over AI investments roiled markets. In Asia, wealthy clients of brokers from Taiwan to Hong Kong faced margin calls on leveraged bets, people familiar with the matter said.

Expectations that a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and Senate will work to slow construction of data centres — a critical component of AI infrastructure — helped drive technology stocks lower across Asia on Friday, following a record US$2.3 trillion wipeout in market value of the Nasdaq 100 index. The losses extended a wealth reversal that saw Nvidia Corp’s Jensen Huang drop out of the world’s top 10 richest.

Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee