Topline
World’s richest man Elon Musk got a good deal less rich Wednesday as the share price of his electric vehicle company Tesla spiraled, causing a broader stock market drought that tanked the net worths of several other billionaires associated with the companies.
Like it was for many other Tesla shareholders, it was an ugly day for Elon Musk’s portfolio.
Key Facts
Musk’s fortune fell by more than $16 billion from $249 billion to $232 billion by late morning, according to Forbes’ real-time estimates.
It’s a drop owed to Tesla stock’s 12% dive after its latest earnings report revealed the fourth consecutive quarter of significant profit declines.
The single-day decline in Musk’s net worth is roughly equivalent to the entire net worth of James Ratcliffe, the second-wealthiest person in the United Kingdom.
Musk remains more than $30 billion richer than the next-richest person on the planet, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, even after the value of his 13% existing stake in Tesla dropped from about $101 billion to $89 billion.
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Surprising Fact
Though Musk’s 11-figure net worth drop was by far the steepest of any billionaire tracked by Forbes, he’s joined by several other big names with massive paper losses Wednesday tied to a stream of potentially discouraging earnings reports. Europe’s richest man Bernard Arnault’s net worth fell $8 billion after his luxury empire LVMH reported lower quarterly sales than forecasted, Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s fortune declined by about $5 billion apiece as shares of Google parent Alphabet slumped after the company warned of growing expenses in its Tuesday earnings call, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg became $6 billion poorer as Meta stock slumped because of its close link to Alphabet due to the company’s similar reliance on digital advertising revenue.
Key Background
Musk’s equity in private aerospace giant SpaceX and generative artificial intelligence startup xAI account for the majority of the remainder of his net worth outside of Tesla. Often controversial, Musk has made headlines in recent weeks for his support for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who he is providing an undetermined amount of financial support to, with Musk denying earlier reports he is donating $45 million monthly for Trump’s cause.
Tangent
Trump came up twice on Tesla’s earnings call Tuesday, with neither instance being in a particularly positive light for Tesla. Musk said production at the company’s “Gigafactory” in Mexico is on pause due to Trump’s proposed tariffs, and that Trump’s reported plans to cut tax credits for electric vehicle buyers “would hurt Tesla slightly” in the short term.
Futher Reading
Trump Media to the Saudi Arabian influence on golf and what real-life billionaires think of ” Succession.” Send tips to dsaul@forbes.com. Follow Saul for analysis on the biggest daily economic and stock market happenings, ranging from inflation data to tech earnings to deep-dives on hot button assets.
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