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It’s been a wild ride for Elon Musk. After becoming the second person ever to reach $200 billion in January 2021, followed by his signature company Tesla reaching a market cap of $1 trillion, Musk has seen $200 billion disappear from his fortune.
There is no need to set up a GoFundMe. It is unlikely that the Twitter owner and CEO of Tesla will ever run out of money. Still, according to Bloomberg, he’s only on a bonfire of money, in part because his Twitter purchase may have torpedoed his Tesla fortune.
Musk, 51, has seen his wealth drop to $137 billion after shares of Tesla plummeted in recent weeks, including an 11% drop on Tuesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His fortune peaked at $340 billion on November 4, 2021, and he remained the richest person in the world until this month he was overtaken by Bernard Arnault, the French tycoon behind luxury goods powerhouse LVMH.
Tesla has been synonymous with EVs for years. Notably, since Musk bought Twitter, Tesla’s dominance in branding and market share has diminished. Shares are down 65% in 2022 due to investor concerns.
Bloomberg notes that Musk has sold such a large percentage of his Tesla stock that his main asset is now Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is in addition to his 42.2% stake in SpaceX.
Elon Musk wasn’t too worried, tweet statements like “Tesla performs better than ever!” as recently as Dec. 16, when shares of the EV company hit $150 a share.
As of January 3, 2023, Tesla shares — which sold for $383.20 on January 4, 2022 — had fallen to $108.10.
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