Guinness Records: Elon Musk suffers worst loss of fortune in history
After losing billions of money, South African-born businessman Elon Musk has made his way into the Guinness World Book of Records. Musk parted ways with a staggering amount close to $200 billion in 2022, thus becoming a person who lost the largest loss of personal fortune in history. The Twitter and Tesla owner lost approximately $182 billion
Guinness Records: Elon Musk suffers worst loss of fortune in history
After losing billions of money, South African-born businessman Elon Musk has made his way into the Guinness World Book of Records.
Musk parted ways with a staggering amount close to $200 billion in 2022, thus becoming a person who lost the largest loss of personal fortune in history.
The Twitter and Tesla owner lost approximately $182 billion (£153B; €173B) since November 2021, as estimated by Forbes, although other sources suggest that it could actually be closer to $200 billion.
Guinness reports that although the exact figure is almost impossible to ascertain, Musk’s total losses far surpass the previous record of $58.6 billion, set by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000.
Elon Musk has lost $182 billion of personal wealth since 2021, the highest amount of anyone in history…https://t.co/PcQY7FGB1W
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) January 6, 2023
The website has also referred to a report by Forbes, that Musk’s net worth dropped from a peak of $320 billion in 2021 to $138 billion as of January 2023, largely due to the poor performance of Tesla’s stock.
“Long-term fundamentals are extremely strong. Short-term market madness is unpredictable,” Musk tweeted after the market closed for the year on 30 December 2022.
Musk’s misfortunes also saw him lose his status as the world’s richest person to Bernard Arnault (France), who is the founder of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), who has an estimated net worth of $190 billion (£156B; €177B).
“The majority of Elon Musk’s fortune is tied up in Tesla stock, the value of which plummeted 65% in 2022.,” published Guinness on its website.
“This alarming decline accelerated in October after Musk bought Twitter for roughly $44 billion (£37B; €42B).
If I dig my grave deep enough, maybe it comes out other side of Earth ????
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2023
“The tumultuous takeover, coupled with Musk’s polarizing behaviour on the platform, sparked the biggest Tesla stock sell-off since the company went public in 2010.”
In the midst of the financial losses, Tesla remains the most valuable car company around the globe with a market cap of over $100 billion larger than their closest competitor, Toyota.
Despite the challenges, the 51-year-old businessman who was born in Tshwane, won’t be going hungry any time soon – as he’s still the world’s second-richest person.
Elon also still seems to be in high spirits; he in fact recently flew to Qatar where he was able to watch Lionel Messi and Argentina winning their first FIFA World Cup in Qatar last year.
