Elon Musk loses almost half of $300 billion networth

The owner of electric automaker, Tesla, Elon Musk, has lost almost half of his wealth in a space of seven months, after becoming the only billionaire to cross the $300 billion networth late last year.

In November, Musk’s fortune was estimated at $315 billion, due to a surge in demand for Tesla share in the capital market. The electric car company joined the trillionaire company club, as its market capitalisation settled at $1.2 trillion.

However, the same Tesla that helped Musk achieve that milestone, is now the cause for the sharp drop in the billionaire’s wealth, which slumped by -36.9% within the last seven months.

The slump was occasioned by a dip in Tesla share value to $628.16 from November 2021’s $1172, fuelled by Bill Gates shorting the firm’s stock and Musk’s reported plan to sell part of his stake to finance Twitter acquisition – the market capitalisation has dwindled in response, down to $650.78 billion within the same period.

Read also :Elon Musk eyes Starlink’s expansion into Nigeria, other African nations

Ripples Nigeria had reported that Musk entered into a deal with Twitter board to acquire the social media company at a cost of $44 billion, although he has recently suggested that the amount should drop by 20% – he plans to self-finance and use bank loan, as well as private investors to fund the deal.

The -36.9% drop means Musk has lost about $116.3 billion in his wealth, which is mostly domiciled in Tesla stock, where he has roughly 21% ownership, although, about half of the stake serves as loan collateral.

Musk is now worth $198.7 billion, according to Forbes Billionaire Index, but despite losing a significant part of his networth, he remains the richest person in the world, due to losses also recorded by Bernard Arnault, owner of Louis Vuitton, and Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos.

Arnault is the second richest human on earth with networth of $141.6 billion, followed by Bezos, worth $129.8 billion, and Microsoft founder, Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, completing the top five richest list with $125.3 billion and $111.7 billion respectively.

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