Elon Musk Breaks World Record For Loss Of Personal Fortune

Elon Musk has suffered the worst loss of a personal fortune in history, Guinness World Records has confirmed.

Musk broke this world record after he reportedly lost $182bn (£150bn) since November 2021, mostly because of the huge drop in value of Tesla’s share price.

Tesla’s shares fell by 65 percent in 2022 and fell 54 percent in the final quarter alone as investors become increasingly alarmed that Musk is focusing too much on Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion (£37bn) in October.

Personal fortune

Guinness World Records reported that although Musk has lost approximately $182 billion as estimated by Forbes, other sources have suggested that it could actually be closer to $200 billion.

“Although the exact figure is almost impossible to ascertain, Musk’s total losses far surpass the previous record of $58.6 billion, set by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000,” it stated.

The world record tracker, citing Forbes data, reported that Musk’s personal fortune has dropped from a peak of $320 billion in 2021 to $138 billion as of January 2023, largely due to the poor performance of Tesla’s stock.”

It was widely reported in December, that Musk had lost his position as the world’s richest person to Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, which owns fashion label Louis Vuitton.

Forbes estimates as of 12 January put Arnault’s net worth at $203.7bn (£168bn) and Musk’s at $146.5bn (£121bn).

Musk has been previously dismissive of stock price fluctuations, and on 30 December 2022, he tweeted to Tesla staff and investors: “Long-term fundamentals are extremely strong. Short-term market madness is unpredictable.”

Heavy investments

Despite the loss in value, Tesla remains committed to heavy spending.

This week Tesla applied to expand its gigafactory in Texas with an investment totalling $775.7 million.

That is one of Tesla’s largest expansion moves in recent times, after it spent $5.5 billion constructing a gigafactory in Germany last year, joining its existing assembly plants in California, Shanghai, and Texas.

Telsa is also contenting with weakening customer demand in key markets such as China.

So much so in early December it was reported that Tesla planned to lower production at its Shanghai factory – the first time it had voluntarily reduced manufacturing capacity there since the plant opened in late 2020.

Then just after Christmas 2022 it was reported that Tesla planned to run its key Shanghai plant on a reduced schedule in January 2023, continuing its reduced production that began earlier in December.

Earlier this month Tesla revealed it had shipped a record 1.3 million vehicles last year, a 40 percent increase from the previous year, but it had missed analysts’ expectations.