Elon Musk Becomes First-Ever Person to Lose $200 Billion

Elon Musk’s current net worth is $137 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, good enough for second place on the list of the world’s richest behind LVMH (LVMHF) Chairman Bernard Arnault. But at its peak in November 2021, Musk’s net worth was $340 billion. That makes Musk the first person ever to lose $200 billion in wealth.

There are multiple reasons for this heavy loss that Elon Musk faced and it contains many possibilities. First buying the social media platform for 54 Billion Dollars didn’t help his net worth very much and his other companies including Tesla, Starlink, Neuralink, etc are also draining Musk’s pockets instead of refilling them.

Buyers are readily losing their interest in buying new Teslas and it became apparent last month after the company announced a rare sale in a bid to clear out inventory. Tesla offered two rebates for buyers taking delivery of a vehicle before the end of the year, initially offering a $3,750 discount and then doubling the rebate to $7,500 with two weeks left in 2022.

Another huge reason for the sink in Musk’s wealth is inflation and the crash of the stock market as the bulk of Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla (TSLA), whose stock plunged 65% in 2022. Demand for Tesla (TSLA)s weakened as competition in electric vehicles from established automakers surged last year. The company missed its growth targets and scaled back production in China. Its fourth-quarter deliveries, announced Monday, missed Wall Street’s estimates.

Investors were rattled by the rebates, sending the stock plunging 37% in December. Critics have long questioned whether Tesla was ever worth the trillion-dollar valuation it had at the start of 2022. At its peak, Tesla was worth more than the 12 largest automakers on the planet combined, despite having a fraction of their sales.

Tesla ended the year worth $386 billion — still much larger than its automaker rivals but far smaller than the tech titans — Apple (AAPL), Microsoft, (MSFT) Google (GOOGL), and Amazon (AMZN) — with which it was being compared a year ago.

As tools earlier, the $44 billion purchase of Twitter hasn’t helped Tesla’s stock or Musk’s personal wealth, either. Musk, Tesla’s largest shareholder, has sold $23 billion worth of Tesla shares since his interest in Twitter became public in April.

His constant tweeting and increasingly erratic behavior, particularly after taking over as CEO at Twitter, has angered Tesla investors who want Musk to pay more attention to his significantly larger and more valuable company. Musk has defended himself against critics, saying he hasn’t missed a major Tesla meeting since taking on responsibility for Twitter.

Tesla’s stock may rebound, and Musk could once again become the world’s richest person. But Musk’s reputation as a genius took some serious damage in 2022 — almost as much damage as his personal wealth.

A Twitter user named Not Jerome Powell took the platform to comment on Elon Musk’s exponential loss.

“If you are having a bad year because you lost a lot of money in the market remember that Elon Musk has lost $200 billion and is still making jokes on Twitter.”

🤷‍♂️

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2023

Another Twitter user with a blue tick, Brianna Wu, Tweeted to Elon Musk’s tweet on the New Year saying, “You worked hard this year and lost over $200 billion. I believe that this year you will surpass yourself with even worse decisions.”

You worked hard this year and lost over 200 billion. I believe that this year you will surpass yourself with even worse decisions.

To this, Elon Musk responded, “Thanks for paying me $8,” referring to the user’s blue verification badge.