Elon Musk Breaks Guinness World Record For ‘Largest Loss’ of Fortune
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has broken a new world record for losing more money than anyone in history. According to the Guinness World Records, Musk, 51, has been recognized as the person with the “largest loss of personal fortune in history.”
Though the Twitter chief executive has lost approximately $182 billion since November 2021, as estimated by Forbes, he’s still the world’s second-richest person. Although the exact figure would be hard to ascertain, Musk’s total losses far surpass the previous record of $58.6 billion. That record was set by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000. According to Forbes, Musk’s net worth dropped from $320 billion in 2021 to $138 billion as of January 2023. That is largely due to the poor performance of Tesla’s stock. Last August, Musk sold nearly $7 billion worth of Tesla shares ahead of his acquisition of Twitter. Tesla plummeted 65% in 2022 and the decline accelerated in October after he bought Twitter for about $44 billion.
“Long-term fundamentals are extremely strong. Short-term market madness is unpredictable,” Musk tweeted after the market closed for the year on December 30. The tweet has since been deleted.
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The tumultuous takeover, coupled with Musk’s polarizing behavior on the platform, sparked the biggest Tesla stock sell-off since the company went public in 2010. Despite that, Tesla remains the most valuable car company in the world. It has a market cap of over $100 billion larger than their closest competitor, Toyota.
Musk’s misfortunes also saw him lose his status as the world’s richest person to Bernard Arnault (France). Arnault is the founder of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy). He has an estimated net worth of $190 billion. Right after Musk in third place is Gautam Adani (India), chairman of the Adani Group with interests in ports, airports, power generation and transmission, green energy, edible oils, cement and real estate. Last week, Musk tweeted: “12 months ago, I was Person of the Year.”
12 months ago, I was Person of the Year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 4, 2023
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