Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just lost US$15.9 billion in a single day

Mark Zuckerberg, the chairman and chief executive of Facebook, lost more wealth in a single day than the entire market value of Molson Coors Brewing Co, or Nasdaq or Ralph Lauren Corp.

About 175 companies in the S&P 500 are worth less than the US$15.9 billion that vanished from the fortune of the Facebook co-founder, as shares of the social-media giant plunged 19 per cent on Thursday.

Zuckerberg, 34, is now the world’s sixth-richest person with US$70.6 billion, down three rungs on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The loss is the biggest one-day wipeout of individual wealth ever recorded on the ranking, which started tracking the world’s biggest fortunes in 2012.

Other big investors of Nasdaq-listed Facebook also took a hit as disappointing second-quarter results obliterated US$119 billion of market value, the most ever in a day for a US company.

Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin lost US$3.9 billion and US$2.2 billion, respectively, on the Bloomberg ranking, while chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg lost US$100 million.