Key takeaways: 

• Didi shares fell 44% on Friday and are now 87% below the previous year's IPO cost.
• The surprising drop is problematic for SoftBank and Uber, the Chinese firm's two most significant shareholders.
• Both firms have already taken a blow on the asset.

Shares of Didi firm fell by 44%: 

Didi shares dropped 44% on Friday, the most significant one-day plunge since the Chinese ride-hailing firm went public in the U.S. in June.

The stock is now 87% below its IPO cost, leaving its two top shareholders — SoftBank and Uber — meeting the possibility for abrupt losses.

The shares were already in freefall amid a crackdown by the Chinese government on domestic firms listed in the U.S. Didi stated in December that it would delist from the New York Stock Exchange and instead list in Hong Kong. On Friday, Bloomberg noted that Didi hadn’t complied with data-security needs required to move with a share sale in Hong Kong.

Softbank owns approximately 20% of Didi. The Japanese empire’s stake is now worth about $1.8 billion, down from nearly $14 billion at the IPO. Uber’s 12% stake has dropped from almost $8 billion in June to slightly over $1 billion today.

Uber received the stake in 2016 after selling its China business to Didi. In its latest yearly report, Uber said that in 2021 it identified an unrealized $3 billion loss on its Didi asset.

The hole worsens and mirrors a broader headwind for the tech sector, which is getting beaten on the public market.

Before this week, database software creator Oracle said its assets in Oxford Nanopore and Ampere Computing pulled down earnings by approximately 5 cents a share in the fiscal third quarter. 

And electric car maker Rivian, which estimates Amazon as a top investor, fell 8% on Friday after a disappointing projection and is now down 63% this year.