Elon Musk’s fortune shrunk by $30 billion in a matter of days. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Elon Musk’s fortune currently resembles a yo-yo diet—befitting the first week of January. In a matter of days, the world’s richest person has gained and lost nearly $30 billion.
The Texas-based CEO is now worth an estimated $271.5 billion, just three days after better-than-expected vehicle delivery numbers pushed Tesla’s stock price up by 13.5% on Monday–and sent his fortune above $300 billion for the first time since November.
But Musk’s winnings disappeared almost as soon as they arrived. He waved goodbye to about $13.9 billion of his fortune on Wednesday alone, then lost an additional $5.3 billion on Thursday. At the close of trading Thursday, Tesla shares were down about 11% from their Monday peak.
More volatility could await the electric car company. On Wednesday, prominent short-seller Fraser Perring announced he was betting against the company, tweeting: “Are Toyota & VW undervalued or is Tesla overpriced? Tesla’s quality & [full self-driving technology] will be measured by the consumers. I’m short again.” Tesla’s stock plunged about 5% on Wednesday, but the company still sports a whopping $1.08 trillion market capitalization and trades 44% higher than it did one year ago. (Toyota is valued at nearly $327 billion, while Volkswagen is valued at $139 billion.)
The majority of Musk’s net worth is tied up in his roughly 16% stake in Tesla, which he first backed in 2004, a year after it was founded. He also owns an estimated 48% of privately held rocket company SpaceX, which was valued at about $74 billion in a February 2021 funding round.
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Even with the almost $30 billion reduction, Musk easily remains the richest individual in the world. He’s followed by French fashion mogul Bernard Arnault (with a $198.8 billion estimated net worth) and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (with a $189 billion estimated net worth).
