(CNN) – Bloomberg News said last week that billionaire Elon Musk became the first person to lose $200 billion of his wealth in history.
He added that, according to the “Bloomberg” Billionaires Index, the wealth of Musk, CEO of “Tesla”, “SpaceX” and “Twitter”, amounted to 137 billion dollars, and he ranks second on the list of the richest people in the world. world world behind Bernard Arnault, chairman of the board of directors of the LVMH company.
The agency pointed out that Elon Musk’s wealth was $340 billion in November 2021 and that “Tesla” was acquiring most of the wealth, but after the company’s stake fell 65% in 2022, demand weakened as competition in the electric car sector intensified between well-known automakers last year, Tesla failed to meet growth targets and cut production in China and announced car deliveries on Monday in the fourth quarter of last year, below Wall Street estimates.
Evidence of waning car buyer interest in Tesla became evident last month after the company announced a rare sale in an effort to clean out its car inventory.
The company has offered two discounts to buyers who get a car before the end of the year, as it initially provided a $3,750 discount, then doubled the discount to $7,500 with two weeks left in 2022, but that caused a Investor confidence in the company shook, leading to a 37% drop in its stake in December.
Critics have long questioned whether Tesla is worth the $1 trillion it had as of early 2022.
Tesla was, at its peak, worth more than 12 of the biggest automakers combined, despite owning a fraction of its sales, but the company ended the year worth $386 billion, which is still far more. at the value of its competitors in the sector The cars, however, are much smaller than the tech giants they were compared to a year ago.
Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter purchase didn’t help Tesla’s stock or his personal fortune, either: Musk, who is Tesla’s largest shareholder, sold $23 billion worth of shares since announcing his interest in Twitter in April.
His constant tweets and increasingly erratic behavior, especially after he takes over as CEO, have angered Tesla investors who want him to pay more attention to his largest and most valuable company.
On the other hand, Musk defended himself against criticism, stating that he “never missed a big Tesla meeting since taking over Twitter.”
Tesla’s stock may recover and Elon Musk could once again become the richest person in the world, but his reputation as a genius has suffered almost as much damage in 2022 as his personal fortune.
