Elon Musk is the founder and president of several large companies. For almost two years, he was the richest person in the world, and in 2021 he was even named Time magazine’s man of the year (as the billionaire recently reminded on Twitter). Now he has added an entry to the Guinness Book of Records to his achievements.
New Guinness World Record. Elon Musk has lost the biggest fortune in history
However, Musk probably did not expect such a form of recognition. The organization reported that the billionaire officially broke the record greatest loss of personal fortune in history (largest loss of personal fortune). As calculated on the Guinness Book of Records website, Elon Musk’s fortune in 2021 reached $320 billion at its peak, and in January 2023 dropped to $138 billion what gives loss of $182 billion.
The organization points out that the awarding of the record was based on the estimates of the “Forbes” magazine, which creates a list of the richest people in the world. According to other calculations, Musk could have lost more, as much as $200 billion. However, this did not matter much for the record itself, which took into account these more conservative estimates.
The previous record for losing the largest personal fortune in history was held by Korean-Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son. son broke the record in 2000, when it lost $58.6 billion (down from USD 78 to USD 19.4 billion). The South African businessman improved this result by over 123 billion dollars.
Masayoshi Son has been trying to rebuild his fortune for many years. In December 2022, he was ranked 66th on the Forbes list with a score of $23.5 billion. It is possible that Elon Musk will also multiply his fortune again.
Why did Elon Musk lose such a fortune?
First of all, it must be clarified that we are not talking about the loss of physical funds that Musk would have at his disposal, but the estimated wealth based on the securities he owns. In the case of Elon Musk, these are primarily Tesla shares and shares in other companies he controls (including SpaceX).
Musk’s fortune dwindled mainly due to the massive, approximately 70 percent drop in the value of Tesla shares in 2022, which accounted for the largest share of Musk’s wealth. He sold a large part himself to finance the purchase of Twitter. Currently, the billionaire owns approx. 13.4 percent. Tesla shares, but still has options to buy more shares at a preferential price.
Source: Gazeta
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
