Elon Musk's fortune has fallen by $110 billion, but he's still the world's richest person
Elon Musk is still the world’s wealthiest person.
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
Elon Musk has lost more than $110 billion on paper in less than a year.
His net wealth has shrunk because of the slump in Tesla’s share price amid the Twitter takeover.
Despite the decline he remains richer than Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
Elon Musk has had more than $110 billion wiped off his fortune by the steep decline in Tesla’s share price this year — more than Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s entire $107 billion net worth.
Musk’s riches peaked at just over $320 billion in November last year, but Forbes estimated this week that his net worth, which is largely linked to Tesla stock, is now about $209 billion.
Tesla has fallen 46% since January and closed on Friday at $214, valuing the company at $672 billion. It hit the trillion dollar mark in October last year.
After selling some shares in the electric car maker earlier this year, Musk now holds 155 million Tesla shares, or a stake of just under 15%.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s fortune has fallen by 35% in less than a year and is down by $28 billion this month alone, but he remains the world’s richest person.
Despite his wealth taking a hit, Musk is $80 billion better off than Bill Gates and $71 billion ahead of Jeff Bezos.
Last year he sold $31 billion worth of stock in Tesla to help pay for his $44 billion Twitter takeover. Forbes included the $31 billion in his net worth, excluding taxes, as the deal has not yet completed.
After he announced his plan to buy Twitter in April, Tesla shares hit the skids. His wealth shrunk from $302 billion in April to $216 billion in June, but recovered to $279 billion in August.
Since then, his net worth has slowly declined as he fought to kill the Twitter deal.
Musk has arranged $12.5 billion in loans but still needs billions more to complete it. He is seeking help from investors and may need to sell Tesla shares worth between $5 billion to $10 billion next week.
The car maker reported weaker than expected third quarter results this week, with sales of $21.5 billion, shy of analyst forecasts of $22.1 billion.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment made outside normal working hours.
