Jeff Bezos saw US$13 billion of his fortune melt away after Amazon.com Inc.’s results left investors disappointed. 

Shares of the e-commerce company slumped more than 8 per cent in early New York trading on Friday as it reported a quarterly loss and the slowest sales growth since 2001. If the loss persists, Bezos’s net worth will drop to around US$155 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. At his peak last year, he was worth more than US$210 billion. 

Bezos, the world’s richest person after Elon Musk, was already the fourth-biggest wealth loser this year, with his fortune dropping by US$23 billion through Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Amazon is contending with higher labor costs following a hiring binge during the pandemic and a surge in inflation that may hold back sales. The company posted a net loss of US$3.8 billion in the quarter ended March 31, compared with profit of US$8.1 billion in the same period last year.