Elon Musk's Fall After Reaching Humanity's First $340 Billion Milestone

Asset Value Evaporates by 203 Billion Won in Just Over a Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and once the richest person in the world, has become the first and only individual in history to lose $256 trillion in assets. Just over a year ago, he reached the milestone of $340 billion in personal wealth, but with Tesla's stock price plummeting, his asset value has evaporated in real time, creating a "new history."

On the 31st (local time), Bloomberg reported that Musk became the only person in history to lose $203 billion (approximately 256.4 trillion KRW) in assets. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk's assets, which peaked at $340 billion on November 4, 2021, fell to $137 billion as of the closing price on the 30th of last month. This means that just over a year after setting the world's first record of surpassing $340 billion in personal wealth, his assets have dropped to less than half.

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

Due to the continuous decline in stock prices, Musk lost his position as the world's richest person last month to Bernard Arnault, chairman of Louis Vuitton Mo?t Hennessy (LVMH). Musk's assets decreased by $133 billion last year alone, marking the largest asset decline among billionaires tracked by Bloomberg.

The rapid decrease in Musk's assets is due to the plunge in Tesla's stock price. At the beginning of last year, Tesla's stock price was around $400, but as of the closing price on the 30th of last month, it had dropped nearly 70% to $123.18. The electric vehicle business, Tesla's core operation, has been sluggish, and after the aggressive acquisition of Twitter, market confidence quickly eroded.

Most of Tesla's stock price decline occurred after news of the Twitter acquisition broke. Since the end of September, when the Twitter acquisition news became public, Tesla's stock price has fallen by 60%. Wall Street has described Tesla's stock as collapsing due to "owner risk," bluntly stating that "Musk has gone from Tesla's hero to villain."

With the stock price collapse, Tesla's market capitalization, which once exceeded $1 trillion, has shrunk to about $389 billion. Despite unprecedented recessions during the COVID-19 pandemic, including semiconductor chip shortages and supply chain disruptions, Tesla achieved "record-breaking" growth but experienced repeated declines last year, becoming a company recorded for the "worst stock price drop in history."

Foreign media have noted that Tesla's market dominance is at risk due to intensified competition in the electric vehicle industry and uncertain market conditions, forecasting that Tesla's stock price decline will continue this year as well. Global investment bank Goldman Sachs recently lowered Tesla's target stock price from $305 to $235, and Andrew Left, founder of Citron Research, said, "Tesla is still an expensive stock. The decline is not over yet," predicting further drops.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.