Elon Musk has lost more wealth than anyone in history

New York
CNN
–

The destruction of Elon Musk’s fortune has become historic.

CEO of Tesla

(TSLA)And SpaceX and Twitter are worth $137 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Indexgood enough to claim second place on the list of the world’s richest people behind LVMH

(LVMHF) President Bernard Arnault. But at its peak in November 2021, Musk’s net worth was $340 billion.

This makes Musk the first person to lose $200 billion in wealth. Bloomberg reported last week.

The bulk of Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla

(TSLA)whose Inventory is down 65% in 2022. demand for Tesla

(TSLA)Weakened as competition in electric vehicles from established automakers rose last year. The company failed to meet growth targets and scaled back production in China.

Evidence of diminishing car buyer interest in Teslas became apparent last month after the company announced a rare sale in an effort to liquidate inventory. Tesla offered two discounts to buyers who receive a car before the end of the year, initially offering a $3,750 rebate, then doubling the rebate to $7,500 with two weeks left in 2022.

Investors were rattled by the discounts, which sent the stock down 37% in December.

Critics have long wondered if Tesla was worth the $1 trillion it had at the start of 2022. At its peak, Tesla was worth more than 12 of the largest automakers on the planet combined, despite owning only a fraction of their sales. Tesla finished the year valued at $386 billion — still much larger than its auto rivals but much smaller than the tech giants — Apple

(AAPL)microsoft

(MSFT) The Google

(The Google) and amazon

(AMZN) – that was compared a year ago.

Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter didn’t help Tesla stock or Musk’s personal wealth either. Musk, Tesla’s largest shareholder, has sold $23 billion worth of Tesla stock since his interest in Twitter became public in April.

His constant tweets and increasingly erratic behavior, especially after taking over as CEO at Twitter, have angered Tesla investors who want Musk to pay more attention to his larger and more valuable company. Musk defended himself against the critics, saying he hasn’t missed a big Tesla meeting since taking charge of Twitter.

Tesla stock may recover, and Musk can once again become the richest person in the world. But Musk’s reputation as a genius took some serious damage in 2022 — almost as much as his personal fortune.