Elon Musk sets record for 'largest loss of personal fortune'
Now it's official - Elon Musk did lose the largest personal fortune ever, according to the Guinness World Records organization.
On its website, the Guinness World Records organization declared that Elon Musk has broken the record for the “largest loss of personal fortune in history,” a record that was first set in 2000 by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son when he lost $58.6 billion due to the dot-com crash, which saw corporations like Amazon and Cisco systems lose large portions of their market capitalization.
Citing Forbes, Guinness World Records said that Musk has lost as much as $182 billion since November 2021, although the organization also noted that other sources have estimated that Musk may have lost as much as $200 billion.
The huge loss comes from the ongoing devaluation of Tesla stock, whose value dropped by as much as 65 percent last year. The continued devaluation of Tesla stock is caused in part by Musk's purchase of Twitter for $44 billion, as he sold $4 billion worth of Tesla stock to fund the Twitter acquisition. Musk stepping down as Twitter CEO after conducting an online poll has not stopped share prices from dropping.
The reversal in Musk's fortunes is especially striking since he was at one point projected to become the world's first trillionaire.
The losses incurred from his acquisition of Twitter have also seen Musk lose the title of the world's richest person to Bernard Arnault, the owner of the luxury empire LVMH or Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy.
As of today, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index pegs Arnault's net worth at $187 billion, $50 billion more than Musk's current net worth of $137 billion. The gap is $14 billion more than it was on January 4, when Musk's net worth was an even lower $128 billion. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's richest people.
MEANWHILE, LET'S TAKE A LOOK BACK AT TWEETS THAT MADE A MARK.
