According to Forbes magazine, Elon Musk's net worth dropped from a peak of $320 billion in 2021 to $138 billion as of January 2023 due to the poor performance of the Tesla stocks.
Moreover, Musk's misfortunes also saw him lose his status as the world's richest person to Bernard Arnault (France), founder of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), who has an estimated net worth of $190 billion.
Even though Musk has lost more money than any human in history, he is still the world’s second-richest person.
Tesla’s stock has been in a freefall over the past three months due to Musk’s Twitter takeover and related distractions, largely.
Musk has been distracted by his takeover of Twitter, a transaction that’s weighed on the stock due to speculation he could sell more Tesla shares to keep the money-losing social media company afloat and take his eye off running the carmaker.
The electric vehicle maker company's stock closed 2022 with a 65% loss.
Tesla is facing mounting challenges, including rising costs, competitive threats, and the risk that a recession will slow demand. The company is also facing a growing competitive threat from major automakers that are slated to flood the market with a slew of new EVs over the next few years.
Despite the plunge in prosperity, Tesla remains the most valuable car company in the world, with a market cap over $100 billion larger than their closest competitor, Toyota Motor Corp, General Motors Co., Stellantis NV, and Ford Motor Co. combined.
In the case of Masayoshi Son, whose net worth declined from a peak of $78 billion in February 2000 to $19.4 billion in July of the same year, the value of his tech conglomerate, Softbank, was wiped out by the dot-com crash.
In 2000 the situation at Softbank was so volatile that Son’s net worth sometimes shifted by as much as $5 billion in a day.
