In January 2021, months after Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk became the second person to ever earn a personal fortune of more than $200 billion. Musk has now accomplished a first of his own by being the first person in history to have their net worth reduced by $200 billion.
As rivals catch up, Tesla’s leadership in electric vehicles, the basis of its high valuation, is in peril. In addition to apparently decreasing output at its Shanghai plant, it is also giving US customers an unusual $7,500 discount to take delivery of its two highest-volume models before the end of the year.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk has seen his worth drop to $137 billion as a result of the recent decline in Tesla stock, which included an 11% decline on December 27. His wealth peaked on November 4, 2021, at $340 billion, and he held the title of world’s richest man until French entrepreneur Bernard Arnault who founded LVMH, passed him in December.
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The milestone in round numbers illustrates just how far Musk rose during the run-up in asset prices during the easy-money epidemic era. In October 2021, Tesla became the first publicly traded company to have a market capitalization of $1 trillion, joining the ranks of tech giants Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., and Google parent Alphabet Inc. despite the fact that the market share of its electric vehicles was relatively small.
With incentives intended to support sales in China, Tesla is beginning 2023 as it did in 2022. Tesla’s website states that the automaker will give Model 3 sedan and Model Y sport utility vehicle purchasers up to 10,000 yuan ($1,450) if they accept delivery before February 28. The 6,000-yuan subsidy that the business began providing in early December is still in effect, while the 4,000-yuan rebate linked to buying insurance through Tesla was initially provided in November.
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Meanwhile, Twitter – which Musk bought for $44 billion in late October – has been the 51-year-old billionaire’s main focus. He has adopted a disruptive strategy, sacking employees only to urge them to come back, and clumsily implementing content standards in order to justify blocking the accounts of some well-known journalists who cover him.
(With agency inputs)
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