The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer, Elon Musk, has become the only person in history to ever lose $200 billion from their net worth.
Musk’s wealth plummetted to $137 billion after Tesla shares tumbled 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 world’s richest person until he was overtaken this month by Bernard Arnault, the French tycoon behind luxury-goods powerhouse LVMH.
The round-number milestone reflects just how high Musk (51) soared during the run-up in asset prices during the easy-money pandemic era.
Tesla exceeded a $1 trillion market value for the first time in October 2021, joining the likes of global technology companies Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc.
Now Tesla’s dominance in electric cars is in jeopardy as competitors catch up. Competitors include Ford, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Hyundai, GM, Volkswagen, Honda, and Nissan.
Tesla shares fell 65% in 2022 and Musk sold so much in 2022 to help cover his Twitter purchase.
Musk’s stake in his closely held Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is at $44.8 billion (42.2% of SpaceX), according to a recent filing.
In response to the decline of his fortune, Musk told Tesla employees that they should “not be too bothered by stock market craziness.”