World’s richest man Elon Musk is now officially $116,000,000,000 poorer than his peak net worth
Tesla drops have seen his net worth crash
Harry Boulton
Elon Musk’s fortunes have taken a downward trend in the past few months, reportedly dropping $116,000,000,000 from his peak net worth.
Although, he still holds his position as the richest man in the world by a considerable margin.
While there’s no doubt that Elon Musk was incredibly rich, his net worth catapulted to heights never seen before following Donald Trump’s US election victory last November.
Musk was a keen supporter and close ally of Trump in the months prior to his victory and benefitted greatly from this connection as the market predicted that his companies would soar through relaxed regulation and increased support.
Trump’s election victory greatly benefitted Musk’s net worth and companies (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Tesla’s stock price over doubled between the end of October and the middle of December, and a tender offer indicated that SpaceX had become the world’s most valuable private firm at $350 billion.
In just a short few months his net worth increased from around $250,000,000,000 to a staggering $464,000,000,000, almost doubling on its own and sitting around $200 billion higher than the next richest on the list.
However, while he remains still the richest individual in the world, his overall net worth has dropped by $116,000,000,000 from it’s highest point, which many point towards the dip in Tesla value, as reported by Forbes.
The publication’s real-time billionaires index indicates that Musk’s current net worth is $347.7 billion, which is over $100 billion more than Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($221 billion) and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($219 billion).
Bloomberg’s billionaires index also indicates that Musk has reported a year-to-date drop of $96.5 billion, or around 22.3% of his overall net worth.
The aforementioned Tesla drops are likely at the heart of this decline, as the car company’s closing price of $272 is the lowest end-of-day share price since November 5, or Election Day in the United States.
Recent developments have put a chainsaw to Musk’s net worth, causing it to drop by $116 billion from its peak (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s likely also linked to the tariffs announced by President Trump on China, as the country is Tesla’s second largest customer base and also produces most of the world’s materials that are necessary for the manufacturing of electric vehicles.
SpaceX remains strong still, especially as private industry efforts appear to be ramping up on the Moon, and xAI – Musk’s artificial intelligence company – continues to grow despite conflict with OpenAI which he previously co-founded alongside Sam Altman.
One intriguing point indicated by Forbes is that while Musk’s $116 billion drop might seem like not that much relative to his existing net worth, that figure alone is higher than all but 11 of the world’s richest individuals’ net worth.
The amount that Musk has lost in the last three months is more than the net worth of people like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Charles Koch, and Walmart-heir Alice Walton.Featured Image Credit: CHIP SOMODEVILLA / Contributor / Getty
Published 14:40 3 Mar 2025 GMT
Elon Musk’s father defends his son’s alleged ‘Nazi gesture’
He says his son is simply a bad speaker
The Musk family continues to be controversial, with Elon and Errol Musk proving to be as divisive as ever.
As well as being the world’s richest man, Elon Musk finds himself in a new position of power thanks to his role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
That’s not the only reason he’s in the news, with him potentially having two new children revealed in the past two weeks, wielding a chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and lurking in the background of Donald Trump pictures.
One of his biggest controversies involved accusations he performed a ‘Nazi salute’ at President Trump’s January 20 inauguration celebrations. There’s been backlash from Tesla owners and Musk’s own daughter, but defending his son, Errol Musk thinks it’s all a misunderstanding.
@AlArabiya_Eng
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Errol Musk defends his son Elon Musk’s ‘salute’: “It means my right hand is empty, I do not carry a weapon” Errol Musk joined us for an exclusive interview where he says that people have misinterpreted @elonmusk’s gesture and was not meant to replicate a Nazi salute. #ElonMusk
Speaking to Al Arabia, Errol Musk says that Elon was struggling to get through his inauguration speech and was trying to look charming.
Discussing the situation, Errol Musk referred to his son as a ‘terrible’ public speaker who apparently “has a lot to learn.”
Saying that he also struggled with public speaking when he first started, Errol Musk continued: “I know him very well, that he was struggling to get through his little speech as fast as possible and to try and look as charming as possible as he could, you know, but he’s.
“He struggles. He’s not. He hasn’t reached the incredibly smooth level of people like yourself, who are years of experience, can talk very well.”
As for the controversial gesture, Errol added: “It was not a Nazi (salute). It was an international salute that we’ve had for maybe the last 10,000 years, more, perhaps.
“And the old German Hail Caesar, of course, obviously emanated from, no doubt from the Persians, the Sumerians and so on. It simply meant, my right hand is empty. I do not carry a weapon.”
He goes on to bizarrely claim that other political leaders have pulled off the same gesture, echoing an X post that shows Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris with their arms in the air.
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Can someone direct me to the articles where the media expressed outrage over this? Can’t find any…
Errol Musk concluded: “Kamala Harris doing exactly the same thing. Nobody seemed to be bothered with it when. When they did it. And whereas Elon was a thrusting out of his arm.
“There’s his actual, you know, sort of like this, which is more like the original Hitler one or something. You know, the. The. The Hail Caesar one was like this, you know, and so on. No, no, it was nonsense. But. But somewhat comical that they picked it up like that, so it’s a bit funny.”
Errol Musk’s defence of his son comes after he’s previously branded him a ‘bad’ father. Elon’s dad spoke about the death of the billionaire’s first son and claimed that his children were left with nannies too much.
Elon and Errol Musk have something of a strained relationship, although the latter comes to his son’s defence at the most unexpected times.Featured Image Credit: GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / Contributor / Getty
Updated 15:30 4 Dec 2024 GMTPublished 09:46 4 Dec 2024 GMT
Tesla billionaire Elon Musk’s net worth is still $70,000,000,000 less than richest person in history
There’s still a way to go until he can claim that honor
Tom Chapman
Elon Musk is (almost) as rich as they come.
With him set to become the world’s first official trillionaire, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has a pretty healthy bank balance to say the least.
With Elon Musk seeing even more digits added to his bank balance in the aftermath of the 2024 American election, his net worth is on the up.
Still, even the world’s richest man is far from the richest man who’s ever existed.
According to Money.com, that honor goes to Mansa Musa. With a fortune sitting at $400 billion, Mansa Musa is thought to be far and away the richest person that has ever lived.
Mansa Musa is the richest person who has ever lived (Pictures from History / Contributor / Getty)
Known as the tenth Mansa (conqueror) of the Mali Empire, Mansa Musa reigned from 1312 to 1337 and owes his immense fortune to his hordes of gold and legacy as the ‘King of Timbuktu.’ During the height of his power, the Malian Empire was the largest producer of gold in the world – at a time when it was most in demand.
According to Rudolph Ware, an associate professor of history at the University of Michigan, Musa was so rich, that people couldn’t even explain how rich he was. Ware says: “This is the richest guy anyone has ever seen, that’s the point. They’re trying to find words to explain that.
“There are pictures of him holding a scepter of gold on a throne of gold holding a cup of gold with a golden crown on his head. Imagine as much gold as you think a human being could possess and double it, that’s what all the accounts are trying to communicate.”
Elon Musk is quickly catching up to Mansa Musa (ANGELA WEISS / Contributor / Getty)
While Elon Musk is undoubtedly rich and has spent a huge sum on a compound to house his children, that’s nothing compared to stories about Mansa Musa’s wealth.
There’s the famous tale of his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, with reports of up to 200,000 men, with 12,000 slaves each carrying four pounds of gold bars.
Musa’s spending was reportedly so lavish, it caused a currency crisis in Egypt. Beat that, Elon.
At the time of writing, Elon Musk’s current net worth is $334.1 billion, which is a massive $70 billion leap since the election.
To put it into context, it’s overtaken Musk’s previous high of $320.3 billion from November 2021. Back then, Tesla saw a surge in the midst of the pandemic.
It comes after a rocky year for the billionaire, with Musk wiping $15 billion off his net worth due to a botched Tesla showcase. It’s not taken him long to get back on top, and considering he was only worth $27 billion at the start of 2020, he could soon overtake Mansa Musa’s all-time worth. After all, what’s $70 billion between friends?Featured Image Credit: Steve Granitz / Contributor / Getty / Images/LifeSpanEd
Published 10:20 26 Feb 2025 GMT
Elon Musk loses over $1,000,000,000 in two months as Tesla is stripped of trillion dollar status
He’s still filthy rich
Rebekah Jordan
Elon Musk takes a $100 billion hit as Tesla shares slide, stripping it of its trillion-dollar status.
The 53-year-old sits comfortably as the world’s richest person but things aren’t looking as positive for his electric car company.
Since mid-December, the Tesla CEO’s net worth has dropped by more than $100 billion as Tesla’s stock continues its downward spiral.
On Tuesday (25 February), Tesla shares fell another 8%, closing at $302.80, marking a 25% decline so far this year.
The data shows Tesla’s vehicle registrations in Europe plummeted by 45% in January compared to the previous year, even as overall EV sales on the continent increased. Additionally, sales in China seem to show a downward trend.
Some analysts believe European buyers are turning away from Tesla due to Musk’s deep involvement in the Trump administration, which is currently straining US-Europe relations.
Andrew Harnik / Staff / Getty
Others are saying investors are cashing out after Tesla’s massive gains over the past year. Despite the recent slump, the stock has increased 52% in the last 12 months. Gary Black, managing partner at The Future Fund investment group, warned that Tesla shares could slide even further this year given the company’s direction on 2025 vehicle deliveries.
Musk’s influence stretches far beyond Tesla – he also leads SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), Neuralink, and AI company xAI, not to mention his controversial role in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
But Tesla investors have long accepted Musk’s multiple responsibilities and they’ve also credited his leadership for the company’s success. So if anything, they view him as more than capable of juggling multiple ventures.
However, events like the recent robotaxi reveal don’t show overwhelming positive feedback. The I, Robot event, back in October, left many investors and Wall Street analysts unimpressed, saying it ‘disappointed expectations in several areas.’
The I, Robot event in October left many investors unimpressed / Sjoerd van der Wal / Contributor / Getty
As a result, Tesla’s stock fell by roughly 15%, and since Musk owned around 13% of the company at the time, his net worth took a hit as well.
Furthermore, Elon Musk and Tesla are being sued by the production company behind Blade Runner 2049 over the robotaxi design.
Nonetheless, Musk continues to roll out new Tesla models, adapting to shifting driver preferences, and the company is also expanding its full self-driving technology into China.
“Tesla’s superior products, new more affordable vehicle, which I believe will be a new form factor and expand Tesla’s total addressable market, and the promise of unsupervised autonomy will sell more Teslas,” Black wrote on X.
At the time of writing, the tech billionaire’s net worth sits at $379.9 billion but it’s still a massive $144 billion richer than the second-richest person in the world, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.Featured Image Credit: Andrew Harnik / Staff / Getty
Published 12:01 19 Feb 2025 GMT
Elon Musk considers sending all Americans $5,000 checks from DOGE savings
Trump would need to approve the proposal first
Rebekah Jordan
Elon Musk has said he would consider giving American taxpayers a payout from DOGE savings.
The Tesla CEO responded to a proposal on X (formerly Twitter) suggesting a ‘DOGE Dividend.’
In other words, Musk would give Americans a $5,000 tax refund check using savings from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The idea was pitched by James Fishback, CEO of Azoria and an outside adviser to DOGE. Fishback is also an outspoken supporter of Trump and Musk and posted the idea on X.
He posted on X: “President Trump and @ElonMusk should announce a ‘DOGE Dividend’—a tax refund check sent to every taxpayer, funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE.”
The CEO also attached a pretty in-depth PDF that he titled ‘The case for a DOGE Dividend.’
@elonmusk
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Will check with the President
Musk replied to the proposal with a short but intriguing message: “will check with the President”.
As the SpaceX founder’s response was gaining reach, he responded to another post, adding: “Obviously, the President is the Commander-in-Chief, so this is entirely up to him”.
Fishback thanked Musk for his response and said that he was ‘honored’ that the world’s richest man expressed interest in ‘our DOGE Dividend proposal for President Trump.’
Fishback also insisted that the ‘DOGE Dividend’ would not ‘be inflationary,’ claiming it would be funded entirely by savings from the agency.
Either way, Trump would need to approve the proposal before anything was to happen.
When Vivek Ramaswamy – who Trump originally planned to have run DOGE alongside Musk – stepped down from the agency, Fishback told NBC News he was ‘willing to step up’ and take his place.
James Fishback/X
According to doge.gov, DOGE has already saved $55 billion by cutting government waste. The savings reportedly come from a combination of ‘fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings,’ as per their official website.
Since its launch during Trump’s second term, DOGE has been praised for reducing spending through a reduction in the federal workforce, and cancellation of grants and contracts.
But the agency has also been criticised for reportedly getting unrestricted access to sensitive government data across multiple federal agencies, including the Treasury Department.
Elsewhere, the head of DOGE was invited to Fort Knox by Republican Senator Paul of Kentucky to inspect the US gold reserves after it was revealed there’s no yearly audit of the stash.
The Bullion Depository holds around 147 million troy ounces of gold, representing over half (56%) of the US federal gold reserves.
