2022 has indeed been a bleak year for the global economy. The richest people in the United States lost a total of $660 billion, and it was Elon Musk who saw his wealth decline the most.
Since the announcement of the $44 billion takeover of Twitter in early 2022, Elon Musk’s fortune has been slowly fading away. The billionaire had to sell shares of Twitter en masse in order to finance the catastrophe, which greatly affected the value of Tesla. In 2022, the company’s market capitalization fell by 70%.
Other factors hurting Tesla stock include growing fears of an economic downturn in 2023 that could hurt the company’s sales growth, as well as rising interest rates that are making stocks like Tesla less attractive to investors.
2022 is a real black year for Elon Musk.
This huge drop was enough for Elon Musk to lose his position as the richest man in the world. His replacement was none other than French luxury magnate Bernard Arnault, who is the co-founder and CEO of LVMH. His fortune is also estimated at 30 billion more than Elon Musk.
While Elon Musk weighed nearly $300 billion at the start of the year, today the billionaire will only have about $130 billion, which means a drop of at least $170 billion in just one year. Thus, the billionaire is still very far from bankruptcy, but he is not so far from leaving the pedestal of the richest people in the world.
Musk’s stake in SpaceX is now his most valuable asset, worth about $47 billion, according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Musk’s stake in Tesla is about $40 billion, and his options on Tesla are worth another $28 billion.
Elon Musk is not the only billionaire whose fortunes have fallen in 2022, as Jeff Bezos would also lose nearly $80 billion. For his part, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg would have lost $78 billion.