Elon Musk, the South-African born businessman and current CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter, has etched his name into the Guinness World Records. But this is not the record Musk would have been aiming for – Musk now holds the record for the largest personal financial loss in history.
Despite losing a large amount of wealth, Musk remains the world’s second-richest person. Most of Musk’s net worth is tied to Tesla, and shares of the company are down over 60% in the last year, dragging Musk’s net worth down along with it.
Related: The 11 Best Electric Car Stocks To Buy Now
Once the World’s Richest Man
The South African-born entrepreneur looked on track to become the world’s first trillionaire but saw his net worth plummet, losing over $200 billion between November 2021 and January 2023. Musk’s net worth peaked at approximately $340 billion but gradually decreased to about $140 billion in January 2023.
Aside from Tesla stock dropping significantly, Musk also purchased Twitter for $44 billion and sold a large portion of Tesla stock to help finance the deal. Musk is working to turn Twitter into a profit-generating engine, but this will likely take time and has been more of a financial drain on Musk than anything.
Related: Elon Musk Is No Longer The Richest Person In The World
Musk’s Reaction
Musk does not seem too concerned about the radical drop in the price of Tesla stock and instead points the finger at the Federal Reserve and its monetary policies, which have hit just about every company in the stock market, not only Tesla. In a tweet, Musk said, “Tesla is executing better than ever. We don’t control the Federal Reserve. That is the real problem here”.
Despite the massive decline in his net worth, Musk remains a visionary entrepreneur and continues leading some of the world’s most exciting companies. There is also a keen interest in how he can turn the financial fortunes around and integrate Twitter into his other ventures.
Musk officially became the world’s richest person in January 2021 and held that title until he was dethroned in December 2022 by Bernard Arnault, the French entrepreneur behind luxury goods behemoth LVMH.
Tags:
