Elon Musk’s $182 billion net worth drop breaks Guinness World Record

Elon Musk can add a new title to his resume: Guinness World Record holder.

The “Technoking” of Tesla made it into the record books thanks to an abysmal 2022 which saw his fortune shrink by $182 billion, the organization announced Friday in a release that cited data from Forbes.

Guinness noted that although “the exact figure [of Musk’s loss] is almost impossible to ascertain,” with some outlets estimating that he lost more than $200 billion, the Twitter owner demolished the previous record: a $58.6 billion loss by Japanese investor Masayoshi Son in 2000.

Musk’s shrinking fortune was largely due to the steep slide of Tesla shares, which lost roughly 65% of their value during the company’s worst year on record.

The loss was enough to knock him off his perch as the richest man in the world — a title now held by luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault.

Of course, Musk isn’t the only billionaire whose fortune took a hit in 2022. American billionaires collectively lost $660 billion last year, CNBC Make It previously reported.

The 53-year-old’s wealth decline spared Amazon founder Jeff Bezos from taking the Guinness World Record. Bezos’s $80 billion loss in 2022 would have firmly given him the “largest loss” title were it not for Musk.

Fellow tech CEO Mark Zuckerberg also broke Masayoshi Son’s record with his $78 billion loss.

Musk’s fortune once sat as high as $320 billion in late 2021. As of Jan. 10, Forbes estimates that his net worth sits at $142.1 billion, making him the No. 2 richest person in the world ahead of India’s Gautam Adani ($125.1 billion).

Also Read: Elon Musk Becomes First Person Ever To Lose $200 Billion

Source: CBNC