By John Ikani
Billionaire Elon Musk, formerly the richest man in the world, has broken a new record.
The Tesla founder and Twitter owner has become the first person in history to lose $200 billion off his net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
The multi-billion dollar bloodbath comes after Musk, 51, in 2021 became only the second person to ever amass a fortune more than $200 billion, after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Musk, whose net worth peaked in Nov. 2021 at $340 billion, has seen his wealth plunge to $137 million as Tesla shares have plummeted 65% in the past year.
It has been the electric carmaker’s worst year to date.
The decline included an 11% plunge on Tuesday alone after the Wall Street Journal reported that a surge in COVID cases had forced Tesla to temporarily halt production in Shanghai.
Tesla Motors Chairman and CEO, Elon Musk, speaks at the Model X launch event in Fremont, California.
Musk lost his title as the richest man in the world earlier this month.
In a memo sent to staffers Wednesday, the billionaire thanked workers for their “exceptional execution” throughout the year while downplaying the company’s dismal stock performance.
“Don’t be too bothered by stock market craziness,” Musk said in the memo obtained by CNBC.
“As we demonstrate continued excellent performance, the market will recognize that.”
Musk was stripped of his title as The World’s Richest Man earlier this month — with the baton being handed over to Bernard Arnault, the French chairman and CEO of LVMH.
Musk’s historic losses are indicative of how high Musk and Tesla soared during the pandemic.
Despite owning just a small piece of the electric vehicle market, Tesla was valued at over $1 trillion by Oct. 2021 — joining other tech giants like Apple, Amazon and Google’s parent company Alphabet, Bloomberg reported.
But as competitors have quickly caught up and are challenging Tesla’s dominance in the electric vehicle market, Musk’s attention has focused on his newest venture as the owner and CEO of social media giant Twitter.
According to Bloomberg’s wealth index, Musk was forced to sell much of his Tesla stock this year as a result of his mammoth $44 billion purchase of Twitter.
Musk also currently owns a $44.8 billion stake in his Space Exploration Technologies Corp — about 42.2% of the company, according to a recent filing reviewed by the news outlet.
Since his headline-grabbing Twitter takeover, Musk has taken major measures to cut costs at the social media company.
He has slashed about 75% of the 7,500 employees and is closing the company’s Seattle offices after reportedly refusing to pay rent.
