Feeling the squeeze lately? Don’t worry, so are Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, given that the millionaire residents of No 10 Downing Street lost an estimated £200 million from their net worth. They’re just like us!

Murty, 43, and Sunak, 42, are among the richest people in Britain, but it was revealed this week that their net worth has fallen considerably after Murty’s shares in her father’s company, Infosys, decreased in value. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, over the past 12 months the couple’s wealth has fallen at a daily rate of more than half a million pounds a day.

The couple originally entered the Sunday Times Rich List in 2022, when Sunak was still chancellor, with an estimated combined wealth of £730 million. However, since shares in Infosys, where Murty has a stake of around 1 per cent, lost nearly a quarter of their value, the couple are now estimated to be worth around £529 million, almost a 30 per cent decrease.

That said, the pair aren’t exactly struggling – they are still the wealthiest couple to have ever graced Downing Street, largely thanks to Murty’s tech company based-wealth. But how much is Murty really worth, and how did she get so wealthy? Here’s the skinny on her family fortune.

Akshata Murty’s net worth

The majority of Akshata Murty’s net worth comes from Infosys, her family’s tech company, which is valued at around $63 billion (£51 billion).

Infosys was co-founded by Murty’s father, NR Narayana Murthy, in 1981 with an initial capital of $250. Since 2015, Murty has owned just over 0.9 per cent of the Bangalore-based group – a stake that was worth an estimated £690 million last year, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2022.

The list’s compilers estimated last year that the holding should have delivered at least £54 million in dividends over the seven and a half years leading up to the publishing date of the list (August 2022), including £11 million in 2021 and a £6.7 million payout announced last month.

However, the value of shares in Infosys has decreased in value by about 25 per cent, making Murty’s 0.93 per cent stake worth a lot less – £481.2 million at the time of compilation, which is down £208.8 million on last year.

How did Akshata Murty become so wealthy?

As well as the benefits accrued by her father’s business, Murty is also a canny businesswoman in her own right.

After she attended college in the US (private liberal college Claremont McKenna College in California) Murty got her start working for Deloitte and Unilever. Then she took a break to complete her MBA at Stanford University, which is where she met a certain Prada-wearing future prime minister.

The pair married within four years, and meanwhile Murty joined a Dutch “clean technology incubator fund” in San Francisco where she worked as marketing director during 2007, though she left quickly to start her own fashion label, Akshata Designs. The company was not a success and collapsed within three years.

A year later, in 2013, she became the director of venture capital fund Catamaran Ventures and helped to launch its London branch with a little help from Mr Rishi Sunak. The firm was considerably more successful than Akshata Designs, though Sunak had to sell his shares to his wife when he became the MP for Richmond in 2015.

As well as Catamaran Ventures and her Infosys wealth, Murty is also a shareholder in at least six other companies, including Jamie Oliver’s Pizzeria, Bloom & Wild, Wendy’s restaurants in India and New & Lingwood, a men’s apparel store, which “measures Etonians for tailcoats and silk dressing gowns”.

Rishi Sunak’s net worth

The prime minister is not only head of the government but he’s also richer than Elton John. In March it was revealed that Sunak has also had an income of more than $6 million over the past three years and made £1.97 million last year alone. His salary is £156,000.

The couple also have four homes across the UK and in California, worth an estimated $18.3 million, including a 19th century-listed mansion in North Yorkshire and an oceanfront penthouse in Santa Monica. So that £200m loss ain’t sounding so bad now.