Snapchat Co-Founder Evan Spiegel Lost a Staggering $700 Million This Morning

It's been a rough morning for Snap Inc.—the maker of the Snapchat social media app—and perhaps an even worse morning for Evan Spiegel, the company's 27-year-old co-founder and CEO.

After the company delivered what's widely regarded as a dreadful first-quarter earnings report on Tuesday night, shares of Snap plummeted over 20% when the stock market opened on Wednesday. Snap stock was selling for $14.13 at Tuesday's close, but opened on Wednesday at just $11.30. It was the company's lowest opening ever, according to CNBC, thanks to an unsuccessful Snapchat redesign and sharply declining ad revenues, among other factors.

The net worth of Evan Spiegel, whose fortune is tied directly to Snap's stock price, tanked as well. As of Tuesday night, Spiegel's net worth was $3.2 billion, good enough to make him the 776th richest person in the world, according to Forbes' real-time rankings of the world's billionaires.

By around 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, however, Evan Spiegel's net worth was down to $2.5 billion. So he theoretically lost about one-fifth of his wealth, at least on paper, in a matter of hours. If his net worth declines much more, Spiegel would be pushed out of the top 1,000 richest people in the world. (Forbes had him at #989 at last check.)

This isn't the first time that the Snap CEO has seen his net worth plunge. During one 48-hour period last November, Spiegel's net worth fell over $500 million when the social media company's stock dropped nearly 20%.

When Snap went public in March 2017, the stock soared to over $24 a share and the net worth of Spiegel and co-founder Bobby Murphy were each estimated at $5 billion on paper. Spiegel and Murphy were worth "only" $2.5 billion apiece on Wednesday morning, according to Forbes.

In other words, the two Snap co-founders have lost $2.5 billion each—or 50% of their wealth—since the company's IPO a little over a year ago.