Musk, Hit by Recall Blow, Moves Away from 'World's No.1 Richest Person'

Regaining Title of World's Richest
Stock Price Drops Due to Tesla Recall Impact
Musk's Assets Decrease by $8 Billion Compared to Previous Day

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Can Elon Musk, CEO of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, reclaim the title of the world's richest person?

With Tesla's stock price briefly rising earlier this month, expectations grew, but the stock price fell again following news of a large-scale Tesla recall, pushing the dream of reclaiming the top spot one step further away.

According to Bloomberg's billionaire index on the 16th (local time), Musk's net worth currently stands at approximately $183 billion. Just the day before, Musk's net worth reached $191 billion, narrowing the gap to Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH, who holds the number one spot in the global wealth rankings.

Bloomberg predicted that Musk would soon surpass Arnault and reclaim the title of the world's richest person. However, since Musk disclosed last year that he donated 11.6 million Tesla shares, excluding these from his net worth suggests it will take more time to retake the top spot. The 11.6 million shares are valued at approximately $1.95 billion.

However, on the 16th, Tesla decided to recall 362,758 electric vehicles due to defects in the driver assistance feature 'Full Self-Driving' (FSD), causing Tesla's stock price to plunge and Musk's net worth to decrease again. On that day, Tesla's stock closed at $202.04, down 5.7% from the previous session on the New York Stock Exchange. Musk is estimated to hold about a 13% stake in Tesla.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) pointed out that Tesla electric vehicles in autonomous driving mode may exceed speed limits or risk collisions when passing through intersections.

The recall targets vehicles equipped with or scheduled to be equipped with the beta version of the Full Self-Driving feature, including Model S and Model X from 2016 to 2023, Model 3 from 2017 to 2023, and Model Y from 2020 to 2023.

Last year, Tesla's stock price plummeted 65% due to weak electric vehicle demand but has trended upward again this year. As of December 30, the last trading day of last year, Tesla's closing price was $123.18. As of the 15th, Tesla's stock price surged 74% compared to the last trading day of last year.

Due to the stock price decline, Musk lost the title of the world's richest person to Arnault just nine months after surpassing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in December last year. When Musk first topped the billionaire rankings in 2021, he posted a mocking tweet awarding Bezos a silver medal.

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