Elon Musk’s name is in the history books once again but he’s probably not stoked about his latest claim to fame.
Musk has officially broken the world record for the biggest drop of personal wealth ever.
The Tesla founder and current owner of Twitter has lost around $264 billion, according to Forbes.
In November 2021, it was estimated Musk had been worth $463bn but is now worth $200bn.
Guinness World Records has named this the largest drop in personal fortune in history, far surpassing the previous title holder, Korean-Japanese investor Masayoshi Son, whose company, Soft Bank, lost $85bn during the 2000’s dotcom crash.
Musk’s immense wealth decline actually spared Amazon founder Jeff Bezos from taking the Guinness World Record of “largest loss of wealth” away from Masayoshi Son after losing a large sum of fortune in 2022. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also broke Masayoshi Son’s record this year.
What’s to blame for Musk’s record-breaking loss of wealth? It’s mainly due to the fall in the share price of Tesla, which went from trading at approximately $400 USD per share down to $120 USD.
His purchase of Twitter and subsequent chaotic actions surrounding the social media platform sparked the fall in Tesla’s share price.
Investors became wary of Musk’s Twitter takeover, and Musk himself has sold large amounts of his Tesla shareholding over the last year. He took out around $58bn from Tesla but continues to own a 13.4 per cent stake in the car company.
At the moment, Tesla is still listed as the world’s most valuable car company despite its fall in shares.
Musk bought Twitter for $64bn in October 2022 and in December lost his title as the world’s richest person to Bernard Arnault, the French founder of luxury goods conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy.