To be one of the wealthiest people in the world means you could lose billions in an instant, and that’s exactly what happened to Elon Musk’s fortune recently.
Elon Musk's fortune decreases by such a huge amount in one day - image source: GT ARAB
Tesla’s stock prices dropped by 9% on Thursday after the company announced third-quarter earnings that fell below Wall Street expectations.
One Wall Street analyst described Elon Musk’s earnings call as a “minor catastrophe,”As a result, Elon Musk’s wealth, primarily tied to his 13% stake in Tesla, saw a decline of over $16 billion on Thursday, according to Bloomberg’s billionaire index.
However, Musk remains the world’s richest person with an estimated wealth of $210 billion.
He still maintains a lead of approximately $55 billion over the second-richest individual, Bernard Arnault, the head of luxury fashion company Louis Vuitton, also known as “The Wolf in Cashmere” due to his aggressive business moves.
In other words, Musk could go through several days like what happened on Thursday and still retain his top position in the wealth rankings.
Arnault had briefly surpassed Musk in the past to become the world’s richest person.
By the end of Thursday, his wealth was estimated at $155 billion, according to Bloomberg.
It’s worth noting that the owner of the luxury goods company had briefly lost the title of “second-richest person in the world” to Jeff Bezos earlier in the week but regained the position.
Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos holds the third position with an estimated wealth of $152 billion, according to Bloomberg’s estimates.
Despite the drop in Tesla’s stock on Thursday, Musk’s wealth has increased by around $70 billion this year, largely due to the rise in Tesla’s stock price as investors have poured into technology sector giants.
On Wednesday, Tesla reported third-quarter revenues of $23.35 billion, which fell short of Wall Street’s expectations of $24.06 billion.
The company also announced adjusted earnings per share of $0.66, which also came in lower than the market’s expectations of $0.74 per share.
