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- Elon Musk has seen more than $130 billion disappear from his net worth in 2022 as Tesla continues to fall.
- Despite the massive decline in wealth, Musk remains the world’s second richest person.
- Tesla has dropped 68% year-to-date as investors fear Musk might be spread too thin between his different business ventures.
The unraveling of Tesla stock has erased $132 billion from Elon Musk’s net worth in 2022, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Despite the massive decline, Musk’s $139 billion fortune still makes him the world’s second richest person, based on data as of December 23.
But the wealth destruction is set to get worse based on Tuesday’s trading session for Tesla stock, as its near 10% sell-off will knock an estimated $7 billion to $8 billion from Musk’s net worth. That would bring his total year-to-date wealth destruction to about $140 billion.
Luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault, who is the co-founder and CEO of LVMH, is $20 billion richer than Musk and has reclaimed his spot as the world’s richest person. Meanwhile, Indian businessman Gautam Adani ranks third in the billionaires index with $110 billion.
Musk’s net worth peaked at just over $300 billion earlier this year. But a 68% year-to-date decline in Tesla stock has erased a large chunk of that, as more investors grow concerned about his committement to running the electric vehicle maker while also juggling his other business ventures.
Since Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late October, shares of Tesla have dropped 50% compared to just a 3% decline for the Nasdaq 100. Musk has also sold billions of dollars of Tesla stock to fund his acquisition of Twitter.
Other factors hurting Tesla stock includes growing concerns of an economic recession in 2023, which would likely put a dent in the company’s sales growth, and higher interest rates, which make growth stocks like Tesla less attractive to investors.
According to Bloomberg, Musk’s SpaceX equity stake is now his most valuable asset, worth $47 billion. Meanwhile, Musk’s Tesla stake is worth about $40 billion, while his options in Tesla are worth another $28 billion, according to Bloomberg.
The next most valuable asset owned by Musk is Twitter, which Bloomberg estimates is worth $20 billion, about half Musk’s purchase price for the social media company. “Obviously myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now,” Musk said in October.
Finally, Bloomberg assigned a $3.3 billion value to Musk’s stake in The Boring Company.
While the decline in Tesla stock has erased the biggest chunk of Musk’s net worth, it has created fortunes for those who bet against the company. According to S3, Tesla is the most profitable short of 2022, generating short sellers mark-to-market profits of $15 billion.
