Nvidia Corp Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang experienced his most significant wealth decline on Tuesday, with his net worth plummeting by approximately $10 billion to $94.9 billion, according to Bloomberg. This marks the largest single-day dollar drop for Huang since the Bloomberg Billionaires Index began tracking his wealth in 2016.

The substantial decrease in Huang's fortune followed a 9.5% drop in Nvidia's stock price, coupled with reports that the US Justice Department had issued subpoenas to the tech firm as part of an intensifying antitrust investigation. A spokesperson for Nvidia declined to comment on the matter.

Nvidia's products have achieved remarkable success, establishing the company as a critical component in the supply chain for some of the world's largest corporations. This prominence, combined with competitors' struggles to develop alternative chips, has caught the attention of antitrust officials. According to a report by Bloomberg News, citing sources familiar with the investigation, the DOJ is now sending legally binding requests that require recipients to provide information, bringing the government closer to potentially filing a formal complaint.

Sources close to the matter indicate that antitrust officials are concerned about Nvidia potentially making it difficult for customers to switch to other suppliers and penalizing buyers who do not exclusively use its artificial intelligence chips.

Despite Tuesday's sharp decline, Huang's wealth has still grown by $51 billion year-to-date, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Nvidia co-founder currently ranks as the world's 18th richest person.

Huang, who was raised in Taiwan and Thailand before emigrating to the US, co-founded Nvidia in 1993. The company has since grown to become the world's third-biggest firm by market value.

When questioned about the probe, Nvidia stated that its market dominance is a result of the superior quality of its products, which deliver faster performance compared to competitors.

The post Nvidia CEO's wealth plummets $10 billion appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, soared about 66.5 miles above the Texas desert aboard his company Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft on Tuesday and returned safely to Earth, a historic suborbital flight that begins a new era of private commercial space tourism.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

"Best day ever," Bezos said after the space capsule touched down, kicking up a cloud of dust on the desert floor.

The 57-year-old American billionaire was joined by his brother Mark, a private equity executive for a trip lasting 10 minutes and 10 seconds. The two brothers were accompanied by 18-year old Oliver Daemen, Blue Origin's first paying customer, and the youngest person to go to space. His father, who heads investment management firm Somerset Capital Partners, was on site to watch his son fly. Bezos also invited 82-year-old Wally Funk, who was one of 13 women of the so-called Mercury 13 group who trained to become NASA astronauts in the early 1960s but were passed over because of their gender.

After landing and exiting the space capsule, Bezos and the other crew members exchanged hugs and popped champagne.

The fully autonomous 60-foot-tall white spacecraft, with a blue feather design on its side, ignited its BE-3 engines for liftoff from Blue Origin's Launch Site One facility about 20 miles outside the rural town of Van Horn.

The flight came nine days after Briton Richard Branson was aboard his competing space tourism company Virgin Galactic's successful inaugural suborbital flight from New Mexico. The two flights give credibility and inject enthusiasm into the fledgling space tourism industry that the Swiss bank UBS estimates will be worth $3 billion annually in a decade.

"Well done," Branson wrote on Twitter, congratulating Bezos and his crewmates.

Bezos founded Blue Origin two decades ago. This was its first crewed space flight.

New Shepard hurtled at speeds reaching 2,233 miles per hour, exceeding the so-called Karman line – 62 miles – set by an international aeronautics body to define the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space.

After the capsule separated from the booster, the crew unbuckled to experience weightlessness. The capsule returned to Earth under parachutes, using a retro-thrust system that expelled a "pillow of air" for a soft landing.

Branson got to space first, but Bezos flew higher - Virgin Galactic managed an altitude of 53 miles – in what experts called the world's first unpiloted space flight with an all-civilian crew.

The flight came on the anniversary of Americans Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin becoming the first humans to walk on the moon, on July 20, 1969. New Shepard is named for Alan Shepard, who in 1961 became the first American in space.

New Shepard is a rocket-and-capsule combo that cannot be piloted from inside the spacecraft. It is completely computer-flown and had none of Blue Origin's staff astronauts or trained personnel onboard. Virgin Galactic used a space plane with a pair of pilots onboard.

The reusable Blue Origin booster had previously flown twice to space.

The launch represented another step in the fiercely competitive race to establish a space tourism sector. Another billionaire tech mogul, Elon Musk, plans to send an all-civilian crew on a several-day orbital mission on his Crew Dragon capsule in September.

On Twitter, Musk wished Blue Origins crew "best of luck" before the launch.

Blue Origin aims for the first of two more passenger flights this year to happen in September or October.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Delivery successful: Amazon's Bezos travels to space and back appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The coronavirus pandemic has had only a slight effect on Israel's millionaires. According to a wealth report from Credit Suisse for this past year, the number of millionaires has dropped by only 154.

The Credit Suisse report says that as of June 2020, Israel was home to 157,286 millionaires, compared to 157,400 millionaires at the start of 2020.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

According to the Swiss banking giant, which studied wealth all over the world, Israel is ranked 30^th globally in terms of the number of millionaires who live there. The study also showed that Israel was home to over 10 billionaires.

The rest of the country is living more modestly. The report indicated that at the end of June 2020, the average per capita wealth in Israel was 773,000 shekels ($221,000), compared to $222,513 at the start of the year.

The total wealth of all adult Israeli citizens currently stands at $1.231 billion, a slight decrease from 2019, when it stood at $1.233 billion.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Israel's millionaires largely untouched by COVID pandemic, report finds appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The amount constitutes the largest donation the Jewish Agency has ever received from one donor for this purpose, Israel Hayom learned.

Abramovich, who is Jewish, received Israeli citizenship in May 2018. He is also the owner of Chelsea Football Club of the British Premier League, which launched its own anti-Semitism initiative in January 2018.

He has given over $1.5 billion to charity over the past 20 years. In 2018, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia awarded Abramovich for his key role in developing Jewish life in Russia, Israel and other countries around the world.

Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog thanked Abramovich for the donation, saying that "Jewish communities across the globe are dealing with a record number of anti-Semitic attacks."

The post Russian-Israeli billionaire gives $5M for fight against anti-Semitism appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The case was brought to the public's attention last year in February, but only on Sunday did the Polie and the Israel Securities Authority recommended that Arison be indicted.

Arison and several executives of the company Shikun & Binui (Housing & Construction), the largest construction conglomerate in Israel, are accused of bribery, a criminal offense that has only lately been enforced among Israel's business community.

"This is a complex investigation, in which 50 suspects were interrogated and 34 testimonies were taken," the police's Lahav 433 Major Crimes Unit said.

At least 19 Kenyan citizens have been arrested in connection with the investigation, which is being carried out in conjunction with the Kenyan police.

"Bribes totaling tens of millions of shekels were transferred, which generated jobs and benefits measured in hundreds of millions of shekels," the police statement added.

Shikun & Binui's business ventures in Kenya mainly involve road construction and maintenance.

Arison is the daughter of Ted Arison, who founded Carnival Cruise Lines, and was the major force behind Bank Hapoalim, the largest bank in Israel. Her personal worth is estimated at some $5 billion.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS. Read more at https://www.i24news.tv/en.

The post Israel Police recommend bribery charges against Bank Hapoalim controlling shareholder Shari Arison appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.