Billionaire and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk has made history as the first person in the world to wipe out US$200 billion off his net worth. This came after his previous achievement in 2021 of becoming the second person to ever amass a personal fortune of more than US$200 billion – the first being Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos.

Musk’s net worth topped at US$340 billion in November 2021, but his wealth subsequently dwindled to US$137 billion as Tesla posted its worst year to date, with shares having plunged by 65% in 2022 (priced at US$123.18 on 30 December 2022). This is a far cry from when Tesla was valued at over US$1 trillion in October 2021, joining tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet. In fact, as of the time of writing, Tesla’s share price stands at US$108.10.

The drop in Tesla’s share price can be attributed to several reasons, including the rise of competitors to challenge its dominance in the electric vehicle (EV) market. The EV car manufacturer was also forced to temporarily suspend production at its Shanghai plant just a week ago due to a surge in Covid-19 cases; this reason alone caused Tesla’s share price to dip by 11%.

Amidst these pressures, Musk’s wealth was also eroded when he had to sell almost 22 million Tesla shares (TSLA) worth at least US$16 billion to help fund his high-profile purchase of social media giant Twitter at US$44 billion, so much so that TSLA is no longer his biggest asset (although he continues to remain as Tesla’s largest shareholder with a stake of roughly 13%). For comparison, Musk’s stake in his other corporation, Space Exploration Technologies Corp, now stands at US$44.8 billion, while his Tesla stake amounts to US$44 billion.

Prior to this, Musk was also stripped of his title as The World’s Richest Man in mid-December 2022 – a title that he held since September 2021 after overtaking Jeff Bezos. He lost the title to the chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, and is now the second richest man in the world.

(Source: Bloomberg)

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