Elon Musk: The First Person in History to Lose $200 Billion
Losing more money than anyone else who has ever existed.
Elon Musk is the second richest person in the world. But his fortunes are going down. He recently became the first person ever to lose US$164 billion (AU$244 billion). This downward spiral began when Musk took over the global social media platform Twitter.
Elon Musk
In November 2021, Musk peaked when his worth was US$340 billion (AU$505 billion). Now, his net worth is just $137 billion (AU$203 billion). There are many reasons why the billionaire is losing so much money. The key reason is the downward trajectory of his company, Tesla.
The EV company achieved a US$1 trillion market capitalization in October 2021. Since then, the shares have only plummeted. They dropped to 11 percent in a single day at times. In 2022, the company’s shares fell 65%. As a result, the company offered a rare end-of-year discount on some models. Tesla is also slowing down production at its Shanghai plant.
Twitter is another reason for Musk’s situation. He bought the company for $44 billion and had to sell many of his Tesla shares to ensure the acquisition was covered. His decision to fire several key Twitter employees and bizarre approach to running the site has meant his downfall in the eyes of the public.
In January 2021, Elon Musk became the second person in the world to accumulate a personal fortune of over $200 billion. The first spot belonged to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. He became the richest person in late 2021 until LVMH’s Bernard Arnault took it from him this past December. Bernard has a net worth of US$164 billion (AU$244 billion), and the key reason for his immense wealth is LVMH jumping 28% for the first three quarters of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.
Still, Elon Musk is a multibillionaire. He has a US$44.8 billion stake in SpaceX and a US$44 billion in Tesla. He also has options in the Tesla worth about US$27.8 billion. His downfall has proved helpful to some people as short sellers made US$11.5 billion (AU$17.1 billion) on Tesla stock last year. It will be interesting to see if Musk remains obsessed with Twitter or if he will bounce back in 2023.
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