Great losers: Musk loses $200 bn in a year, Bankman-Fried $16 bn in 3 days!
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Just 13 months ago, he was the world’s wealthiest man, with over USD 338 billion worth of personal fortune in November 2021. He was hailed as the brainiest businessman and became a role model for many starry-eyed youngsters raring to join the race for the next dollar.
But that was 13 long months ago. Even a week is a long time in this fast-pacing world.
Who knows this better than Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of digital asset exchange FTX, who lost a USD 16 billion fortune in just three days in November. FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a month ago and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO of his company.
According to the media reports on Saturday, Musk’s net worth plummeted by more than USD 200 billion over the past 13 months, one of the biggest losses of wealth in recent history.
The technology tycoon lost over half of his fortune between November 2021 and December this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, largely because of the collapse of his flagship company, Tesla Motors’s stock.
The USD 208 billion wiped from Musk’s net worth is roughly equivalent to the entire GDP of Greece. The amount lost is also more than the net worth of the world’s latest richest person, Bernard Arnault.
After topping the rich list for most of the year, Musk lost his place to the French business magnate in December 2023, although he remains ahead of other US tech billionaires that have dominated the list in recent years.
Musk’s net worth peaked at USD 338 billion in November 2021, according to Bloomberg, coinciding with Tesla’s fortunes.
The electric car maker lost roughly 70 percent of its value in 2022 following production delays in China, now in the grip of a Covid tsunami, vehicle recalls, and concerns among investors that its CEO has been distracted by his new role as head of Twitter, which he bought in October for USD 44 billion before, amid, and after several controversies that refuse to die down.
Tesla’s market cap is down by nearly USD 900 billion since November 2021, causing it to drop out of the top 10 most valuable companies.
Despite the losses, Tesla remains the world’s most valuable car maker by a distance, with its losses over the last year equivalent to the combined market cap of all other automakers.
In a recent email to Tesla staff, Musk wrote that he believed Tesla will become “the most valuable company on Earth” in the long term.
“Don’t be too bothered by stock market craziness,” he wrote, “as we demonstrate continued excellent performance, the market will recognize that.”
Musk rarely speaks of his wealth, though did explain his ambitions for his fortune in a Twitter thread in 2018.
“You should ask why I would want money,” he wrote. “About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth and a half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure the continuation of life (or all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens and we destroy ourselves.”
