Elon Musk Becomes First Person Ever To Lose $200 Billion

Elon Musk, who passed that milestone in January 2021, months after Jeff Bezos, became the second person in history to generate a personal fortune of more than $200 billion.

The CEO of Tesla Inc. has just made history by becoming the first person ever to have their net worth reduced by $200 billion.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk, 51, has seen his worth drop to $137 billion as a result of the recent decline in Tesla stock, which included an 11% decline on Tuesday.

His fortune peaked at $340 billion on Nov. 4, 2021, and he remained the world’s richest person until he was overtaken this month by Bernard Arnault, the French tycoon behind luxury-goods powerhouse LVMH.

The milestone in round numbers shows just how far Musk rose during the run-up in asset values during the easy-money epidemic era.

Even though Tesla’s electric vehicles made up a tiny portion of the overall auto market, the company’s market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in October 2021, joining the ranks of well-known technology giants Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., and Google parent Alphabet Inc.

As rivals catch up, Tesla’s leadership in electric vehicles, which served as the basis for its high valuation, is now in peril. It is apparently decreasing output at its Shanghai plant while simultaneously giving US customers a unique $7,500 discount to take delivery of its two highest-volume models before the end of the year.

Musk has been focused with Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion in late October, in the meanwhile as pressure on Tesla grows.

In order to justify blocking the accounts of some well-known journalists who cover him, he has adopted a “move fast and break things” strategy that includes firing employees and then asking them to return. He has also applied content policies carelessly.

According to Bloomberg’s wealth index, Musk’s biggest asset is no longer Tesla shares because of the company’s precipitous slide since they plunged 65% in 2022 and the amount Musk sold this year to help pay for his purchase of Twitter.

Musk still has options worth an estimated $27.8 billion, so his holding in his closely held Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is worth $44.8 billion, which is more than his roughly $44 billion position in Tesla stock. According to a recent filing, Musk now owns 42.2% of SpaceX.

Musk, for his part, has dismissed concerns about Tesla and has repeatedly taken to Twitter to criticize the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates at the fastest pace in a generation.

“Tesla is executing better than ever!” Musk tweeted on Dec. 16. “We don’t control the Federal Reserve. That is the real problem here.”

The billionaire, who has previously borrowed extensively against his stake in Tesla, has though also recently warned against the dangers of borrowed money in panicky markets.

“I would really advise people not to have margin debt in a volatile stock market and you know, from a cash standpoint, keep powder dry,” Musk said in the All-In podcast released this month. “You can get some pretty extreme things happening in a down market.”

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