Elon Musk secures world record for largest-ever loss of personal fortune

Elon Musk has secured a world record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history, Guinness World Records said Friday. 

In a blog post, the global organization, which keeps track of a huge variety of records, cited Forbes’s estimate that Musk had lost around $182 billion since November 2021 but noted that other sources indicate the figure is closer to $200 billion.

While the true figure is unclear, Musk’s losses appear to easily surpass those of the previous record-holder, Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son, who lost $58.6 billion in 2000. 

Forbes reported that that Musk’s net worth dropped from a peak of $320 billion in November 2021 to $137 billion on Tuesday. The magazine attributed Musk’s steep decline in net worth to shares of Tesla, of which Musk is CEO and the largest shareholder, falling by 65 percent. 

Forbes reported that the drop occurred almost entirely after Musk announced his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in April. 

Musk sold $7 billion worth of Tesla stock as he was trying to finance his deal to buy the social media company and another $4 billion in November. He sold another $3.58 billion worth of stock last month, bringing his total sell-off to more than $23 billion since April. 

Musk lost his status as the world’s wealthiest person as a result of Tesla’s collapsing shares, being surpassed by French fashion and cosmetics magnate Bernard Arnault. 

Many companies have paused their advertising on Twitter following Musk’s acquisition of the platform, causing what Musk has called “a massive drop in revenue.” Financial analysts have said Musk appears to be using money from Tesla to financially support Twitter as it tries to reduce its massive debt. 

Guinness said the net worth of Son, the previous record-holder, dropped from $78 billion to $19.4 billion after his company, Softbank, was “wiped out” during the “dot-com” crash. The company eventually acquired several U.S. and British technology companies, allowing it to rebound, the organization noted.

“As Elon Musk continues to build his own tech conglomerate, we won’t be surprised to see him bounce back too at some point in the future,” the Guinness post said.