At the start of the week, Musk had been the only person on Bloomberg’s billionaire index whose wealth exceeded $200 billion. But the global decline in stock markets prompted by the Russia/Ukraine crisis has seen Tesla shares fall for four days in a row, pushing his fortune down to $199 billion.
The Bloomberg billionaires index illustrating why it pays to get into tech It means Musk has seen his fortune drop by $71.7 billion this year, more than the next three wealthiest people combined, writes Bloomberg. But that’s a paltry sum if you compare it to his wealth on November 4, the day Tesla shares reached a record high. Musk was worth $340.4 billion at that point, or $140 billion more than he’s worth today. The share price quickly fell a few days later when the CEO asked his Twitter followers if he should sell a 10% stake in Tesla; they approved, though most people think he would have sold them regardless of the outcome. It led to his net worth plummeting by $35 billion. Musk, who has long faced criticism for not paying his fair share of taxes, said in December that he would pay over $11 billion in taxes this year, more than any American in history. The only other person whose wealth has exceeded the $200 billion mark is Jeff Bezos. He passed that point last April, and his fortune stayed around the same level for most of the year, but it dropped below the milestone in December and has not been back above it since. He is currently the world’s second-richest person with a $169 billion fortune. Musk has made headlines several times in the last couple of weeks. He compared Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler, and revealed that Tesla is working to bring Steam games to its vehicles.
