Elon Musk’s position as the world’s wealthiest person was short-lived, as Tesla’s stock experienced a significant decline, resulting in a loss of $7.71 billion from his net worth on Thursday. The disappointment among Wall Street investors was due to Musk’s Investor Day event, which lacked specific details, causing the value of Tesla shares to fall.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s net worth is now $176 billion, making him the second-richest person globally, while Bernard Arnault, chairman of French luxury group LVMH, has regained the top spot with a net worth of $187 billion.
The majority of Musk’s fortune is linked to Tesla stock, which plummeted to its lowest level of $186.77 on Thursday, the largest intraday drop since January. The stock closed at $190.87, down 5.85 percent, wiping $50 billion from the company’s value.
On Monday, Tesla stock reached an intraday high of $210.70, propelling Musk back to the top position on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with a net worth of $187 billion. However, the stock remains more than 50 percent lower than its value in January 2022, when it traded at $399.93.
Over the past two months, the stock had rallied as investors speculated that Tesla’s Investor Day event would reveal plans for a cheaper new electric car. Still, the event failed to provide any concrete details about the next vehicle, according to Bloomberg.
Despite the lack of specifics, Tesla’s design chief, Franz von Holzhausen, expressed confidence in the company’s ability to deliver “exciting, compelling, and desirable” vehicles.
The investor day focused on Tesla’s approach to designing and developing vehicles generally, emphasizing the company’s commitment to clean energy transition. However, JP Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman observed that the event was “short on specifics or measurable metrics to track its progress,” according to Bloomberg.
Musk has been one of the biggest gainers on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index this year, with a net worth of $39.3 billion, a 28.7 percent increase, since January 1. However, the year 2022 was tumultuous for the billionaire, as his wealth plummeted amid a sell-off of technology stocks and controversies related to his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
In January, he broke the world record for the biggest wealth loss in history after shedding $182 billion from his net worth since November 2021, according to Guinness World Records. In 2022, he lost $138 billion from his net worth, almost equivalent to the gross domestic product of Hungary, resulting in him losing his world’s richest title for the first time in 14 months on December 12.
Musk started 2023 with a net worth of $138 billion, a significant drop from the peak of his wealth at $320 billion in 2021, according to Forbes magazine data. He made his first millions in the 1990s by selling his first company, Zip2, for more than $300 million. He then launched X.com, an online payment system that eventually became PayPal, which he sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.