Tesla’s share price has fallen 62% since its peak in November 2021 – and Musk’s fortune has shrunk by $160 billion since then. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Tesla’s stock price has fallen 62 percent from its peak as investors expect growth to slow.
The drop in stock price led to an estimated $160 billion drop in Elon Musk’s net worth (€150 billion)
Tesla’s CEO is now worth about $178 billion (€167 billion), compared to $340 billion (€320 billion) in November 2021.
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor.
Tesla’s mounting problems have dealt a major blow to Elon Musk’s net worth. In November 2021, the Tesla CEO was at the helm of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and seemed untouchable with an estimated fortune of $340 billion (320 billion euros). At this point he was more than three times richer than Warren Buffett.
Since then, however, Musk’s net worth has fallen by about $160 billion (150 billion euros) to $178 billion (167 billion euros). The main reason for this is Tesla shares, which have fallen from a split-adjusted high of $415 (€390) in 2021 to $157 (€147) – a decline of 62 percent.
The price collapse caused Tesla’s market capitalization to fall from over $1.2 trillion (€1.1 trillion) to under $500 billion (€470 billion). Musk’s net worth has taken a hit due to the decline, as his thirteen percent stake in the automaker accounts for a large portion of his wealth.
Musk’s start to this year has also been dismal compared to his 12-figure peers. In January he topped the Bloomberg rich list with a fortune of $229 billion (€215 billion), but since then his net worth has fallen by $51 billion (€48 billion), or 22 percent.
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The Tesla and SpaceX CEO now ranks third in the wealth rankings, behind LVMH’s Bernard Arnault and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is close to overtaking him too.
Additionally, Musk is the only one of the world‘s 11 richest people whose net worth has fallen this year. On paper, he has lost more money than anyone else on the list has gained, including Zuckerberg, who gained almost $50 billion (€47 billion).
Tesla shares have plummeted in recent months amid increasing concerns about the company. Musk told employees over the weekend that more than 10 percent of the company’s global workforce would be laid off, suggesting that demand for electric cars has stalled.
The automaker delivered fewer cars to customers than expected last quarter and has made price cuts that threaten to erode its profit margins.
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Additionally, Musk is fending off fierce competition from Chinese rivals like Buffett-backed BYD and has repeatedly highlighted the painful impact of higher interest rates on customer demand.
Musk’s wealth is not entirely tied to Tesla. He also owns an estimated 42 percent stake in SpaceX, the space exploration company valued at $180 billion (169 billion euros) in December, and a roughly 79 percent stake in X after acquiring Twitter in 2022 and rebranding it last year had.
Read the original article in English here.