Google co-founders world’s biggest wealth losers on Alphabet stock’s worst day ever

The fortunes of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have plummeted to their lowest points yet, with Page's wealth dropping by $31.5 billion to $235.9 billion and Brin's falling $28.9 billion to $217.2 billion, according to Forbes. The steep decline comes after Alphabet's stock, which owns Google, suffered its worst day ever, shedding a record $500 billion from its market value as investors grew wary of excessive AI spending, CNN reported.

The single-day decrease is the second-largest on Wall Street, trailing only Nvidia's $593 billion loss last January.

Alphabet's cash flow turned negative in the third quarter, ending September, with a staggering $9.1 billion loss as the company poured over $50 billion into AI spending during the period, as per its quarterly report released after market close. This figure fell short of analysts' expectations and marked only the second quarter of negative cash flow since Google's initial public offering in 2004, as reported by the Financial Times.

The company's earnings also failed to meet Wall Street's forecasts, with growth in Google's core search and advertising business slowing. Operating income, excluding investment losses, grew by 30% to $40.6 billion but still fell below the forecasted $43.2 billion.

Since the beginning of the year, Alphabet stock has slipped around 10%, resulting in a 8% decline in the net worths of the two co-founders, who hold roughly 3% stakes in the firm. Page and Brin, who founded Google in 1998 during their Stanford University days, still rank as the world's third- and fourth-richest individuals, just behind Elon Musk and ahead of Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell, all of whom also experienced significant wealth losses on Thursday.