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NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) – Elon Musk set records last year for one of the fastest streaks of wealth accumulation in history. The rollback is underway and it’s steep.
Tesla’s chief executive lost $ 27 billion (S $ 36.24 billion) since Monday (March 1) as the automaker’s shares plunged in the sell off of tech stocks.
His net worth of $ 156.9 billion still puts him second on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, but he’s now nearly $ 20 billion behind Jeff Bezos, whom he surpassed last week as the richest person in the world.
Musk’s fall only underscores the difficult-to-comprehend speed of his rise. Tesla shares soared 743 percent in 2020, increasing the value of its stake and unlocking billions of dollars in options through its historic “moonshot” compensation package.
His earnings accelerated into the new year. In January, he ousted Bezos as the richest person in the world.
Musk’s fortune peaked later that month at $ 210 billion, according to the index, a ranking of the 500 richest people in the world.
Steady quarterly earnings, the election of US President Joe Biden, with his adoption of cleantech and the enthusiasm of retail investors, fueled the rise of the company, but for some, its rising valuation was emblematic of an unsustainable foam on the market. technology.
The Nasdaq 100 Index fell for the third week in a row on Friday, its longest streak of declines since September.
Musk’s fortune has not been solely subject to the forces that plague the tech industry. His net worth has recently risen and plummeted along with the price of bitcoin.
Tesla revealed last month that it had added $ 1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency to its balance sheet. Musk’s fortune took a $ 15 billion hit two weeks later after he reflected on Twitter that the prices of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies “look high.”
Extreme volatility has hit many of the world’s greatest fortunes this year. Asia’s richest person, Chinese bottled water mogul Zhong Shanshan, gave the title to Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani last month after losing more than $ 22 billion in a matter of days.
Quicken Loans chairman Dan Gilbert’s net worth increased by $ 25 billion on Monday after his mortgage lender, Rocket Cos, was said to be the next target for Reddit daily traders. Since then, his fortune has shrunk by nearly $ 24 billion.
Alphabet co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are among the index’s biggest winners this year. Each of them has added more than $ 13 billion to their fortunes since January 1.
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