The drop comes as Tesla shares fell dramatically on Thursday, the outlet has said
Elon Musk. © Win McNamee/Getty Images
Elon Musk’s wealth plunged by $20.3 billion on Thursday after Tesla’s shares experienced their worst slump on fears of a drop in the company’s profits, Bloomberg has reported.
Tesla shed 9.7% to $262.90 per share during trading hours in New York on Thursday, the steepest decline since April 20. It comes after Musk, the company’s CEO, announced on Wednesday that Tesla would have to keep lowering prices if interest rates continue to rise.
Musk’s net worth dropped to $234.4 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, in the seventh-largest decline ever among the world’s richest people on the list, the outlet noted.
This has further narrowed the wealth gap between the world’s two richest people – Musk and Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods maker LVMH.
Even after the slump, however, Musk’s fortune still exceeds that of Arnault by about $33 billion.
In June, Musk overtook Arnault and became the world’s richest person after shares in the Paris-listed LVMH fell 2.6%. Tesla’s CEO and the luxury goods tycoon have been neck-and-neck for the top spot this year in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Musk owns about 13% of all Tesla stock, which ties his personal wealth directly to the value of the EV manufacturing firm. He also derives wealth from holdings in Space Exploration Technologies and Twitter.
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His net worth surged by about $118 billion to over $250 billion this year through Wednesday, after shares in Tesla climbed 136% year-to-date.
Billionaire Arnault has added $39 billion to his net worth, which climbed to $201.2 billion this year after shares in LVMH, the parent company of Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon and Hennessy as well as brands including Givenchy, Christian Dior, Bulgari and Sephora, gained 26% in 2023.
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