Elon Musk’s fortune shrinks by $150bn
Twitter, mass Tesla recalls and problems in China are seeing the world’s richest person’s fortune go backwards at a staggering rate.
Elon Musk may still be the world’s richest person, but his fortune is going backwards at a rate of knots, shedding $8.6bn ($AUD12.9bn) on Monday alone.
The new owner of Twitter is worth $169.8bn ($AUD254bn), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, but that is down by an extraordinary $100.5bn ($AUD150bn) this year.
It is little more than a year since Musk’s fortune peaked, bolstered by his Tesla shares, but the stock is now at its lowest level for two years. Tesla, the maker of electric cars, accounts for the majority of his fortune, but the tightening of Covid-related restrictions in China has been a painful process for the marque.
Its China crisis is not the only issue weighing on the Tesla share price. The company, which is based in Austin, Texas, recently was forced to recall 300,000 cars to carry out remedial work on faulty rear lights, while at the same time having to deal with supply chain snarl-ups and soaring inflation in raw materials costs.
Shares of Tesla fell a further 6.8 per cent to $167.87 ($AUD252.59) in New York on Monday — the lowest level since November 2020, when the pandemic was still peaking — and are down by about 52 per cent so far this year, which compares with a 29 per cent decline for the Nasdaq 100 index.
Last night, Tesla shares closed up $2.04 ($AUD3.07), or 1.2 per cent, at $169.91 ($AUD265.66)
Critics argue that Musk’s woes with Tesla can be attributed to his will-he, won’t-he acquisition of Twitter, which finally took place last month. The $44 billion deal has led to accusations that the famously hands-on tycoon is spreading himself too thinly.
The 51-year-old has dispensed with about 60 per cent of the social media network’s employees since taking charge, including a round of redundancies on Sunday. Exiting staff were offered a payoff of three months’ pay.
According to Bloomberg, a battalion of staff are said to have walked out of their own volition rather than having to stay and submit themselves to Musk’s “hardcore” working culture.
Tesla’s dependence on Musk is listed as a risk in security filings, which state “although Mr Musk spends significant time with Tesla and is highly active in our management, he does not devote his full time and attention to Tesla”.
