Elon Musk broke the Guinness World Record for the biggest wealth loss
Beats the record of Softbank founder Masayoshi Son whose fortune collapsed during the dot-com crash.
Elon Musk may have lost the coveted title of the world’s richest person in 2022. But the man surely did it in style as he set a Guinness World Record and lost an estimated $182 billion of personal fortune, the record keeping website confirmed.
It surely wasn’t that Musk set out to achieve such a feat by the time 2022 was over. But the CEO of Tesla who had a terrific 2021 could only be happy that 2022 was over, hopeful that the new year will bring back his Midas touch to Twitter as well and set things straight at the social media company.
Ever since Musk announced in April 2022 that he was looking to acquire Twitter, the Tesla stock began to slide, something that continues to date. Since much of Musk’s wealth is tied to the Tesla stock, his riches have also disappeared. Estimates from Forbes suggest that Musk’s wealth has shrunk by 182 billion since November 2021, but others estimate the number to be closer to $200 billion.
Nearly $200 billion lost but no pauper here
The sheer number of billions lost would have surely put even a billionaire on the street but not Elon Musk. When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg lost nearly $80 billion last year, he disappeared from the world’s top 10 wealthiest people list to somewhere in the late 20s. Musk, however, having lost more than twice, merely stepped down from the podium’s top spot to the second place.
This was due to the massive wealth he had amassed the previous year, as Tesla stock soared to all-time highs. Interesting Engineering had then reported how Musk made $36 billion in a day, something the likes of you and me don’t even dream about.
However, as the U.S. Federal Bank began increasing interest rates in April last year, Musk’s worst fears of a recession slowly started coming true. Raising money in the market became dearer, and investors began parking their money in safer destinations, away from technology stocks like Tesla.
Musk’s attention being diverted by Twitter is also adding to the company’s stock price woes but Musk appears unmovable from the CEO chair, even after most of his supporters asked him to.
Taking a leaf from Son’s book
Musk’s personal fortune loss far supersedes that of Masayoshi Son, the Japanese tech investor and founder of Softbank. In 2000, the dot-com bubble burst, and Softbank, which had invested in many tech companies, saw its valuation wiped out in a matter of months.
Son, whose personal fortune was tied to Softbank valuation, shrunk from $78 billion in February to $19.4 billion in July 2000, a Guinness World Record. On days, this valuation dropped by as much as $5 billion. But Son did not lose heart.
He acquired more tech companies and is now one of the leading investment management companies in the world. Musk would be hopeful that his bet on Twitter also works out in 2023, and he can go back to winning ways and truly unlock the potential of the social media site while making big strides on the world’s richest list too.
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