Elon Musk has set a new world record for losing the most amount of money ever.
The CEO of Tesla and Twitter has lost so much money since November 2021 that, according to Guinness World Records, the international body that keeps track of record accomplishments, he has shattered the world record for the “largest loss of personal fortune in history.”
Forbes estimated that Musk had lost $182 billion when Guinness announced the record, while other estimates indicate that it may have been closer to $200 billion.
Prior to Musk, Masayoshi Son, the founder and CEO of Softbank, established the previous record for the greatest personal fortune destroyed in 2000. Guinness estimates that Son lost $58.6 billion.
Musk’s net worth decreased from a high of $320 billion in 2021 to $138 billion as of January 2023, according to Forbes.
The majority of Musk’s wealth comes from Tesla stock, the value of which sunk a whopping 65% in 2022.
Prior to buying Twitter, Musk sold over $7 billion worth of Tesla shares in August.
Tesla’s precipitous decline accelerated when Musk acquired Twitter in October.
“Long-term fundamentals are extremely strong. Short-term market madness is unpredictable,” Musk tweeted after the market closed for the year on 30 December 2022.
According to Forbes’ real-time billionaires list Musk, who is also the CEO of Space X, lost his position as the richest person in the world in December, falling to second place behind Bernard Arnault and his family, who is the co-founder and CEO of the French luxury goods giant LVMH. The owner of Louis Vuitton is reported to be worth $190 billion.
