Elon Musk’s wealth has eroded $60 billion in just two months as Tesla's market cap falls 35%

• According to the Bloomberg billionaire index, Elon Musk unseated Bezos as the world's richest person when his net worth touched a record high of $209 billion on January 10.
• However, the title was short-lived as Bezos took over Musk in days after becoming the first richest person.
• Musk's net worth was on a streak last year and multiplied over 6 times its value from $36 billion in March last year to the peak in January.
• The shares of Tesla have far exceeded the broader market's decline and wiped out over $230 billion of investors wealth in the past four weeks.

Elon Musk's fortune, which was on a bull run last quarter, now seems to be taking a hiatus. According to the Bloomberg billionaire index, Musk — the owner of electric car maker Tesla — unseated Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person on January 10, this year, when his net worth touched a record high of $209 billion.

But the title was short-lived as Bezos, founder of e-commerce giant Amazon, took over Musk after Tesla founder’s fortune plummeted more than 28% to $149 billion in just two months.


Musk's net worth was on a streak last year and multiplied over 6 times its value from $36 billion in March last year to peak in January. The growth in Musk's fortune is directly linked to the ups and downs in Tesla's stock. The stock of the electric car maker has grown 437% in the span of just one year. The stock touched an all-time high of $880 on January 8, and that’s when Musk's net worth also touched its peak. However, the euphoria was short-lived. The recent investors' sentiments haven't played out well for the company, and the stock has lost nearly 46% of its value from its peak this year.

The shares have far exceeded the broader market's decline and wiped out over $230 billion investors wealth in the past four weeks. The company's current market capitalisation, as of March 8, stands at around $540 billion, a far cry from the high of $837 billion it reached in January.


The recent plunge in Tesla's market value has sent it behind social networking giant Facebook and investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway but ahead of investment bank JPMorgan Chase (JPM) on the US stock exchange Nasdaq.

Ace Indian investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala believes the company's market value is in a bubble. He told ETnow that the market cap of Tesla is not going to last and is not linked to the entrepreneurial capabilities of Musk.

"Elon Musk has not given the market-cap of Tesla. It is the public who has created it. This market-cap is not going to last. But that does not take away some of the entrepreneurial capabilities or performance of Mr. Musk. The valuation of Tesla is not linked to the entrepreneurial capabilities of Musk," Jhunjhunwala said.

Elon Musk himself is the reason behind his falling net worth

Musk's fortune hasn't been solely subject to the forces buffeting his company's financials. The 49-year old billionaire is known to send the market around the world go bonkers with just his tweets. Musk invested around $1.5 billion in the crypto giant Bitcoin in February, and his endorsement of Bitcoin sparked a huge rally taking the cryptocurrency asset's value to over $35,000.

Musk's net worth has risen and slumped recently in tandem with the price of the cryptocurrency. Musk, in a tweet, said that the prices of Bitcoin and its rival Ether "do seem high." And, just hours after the tweet, the crypto giant Bitcoin plummeted 10% and brought a massive dent in Tesla's share price too.


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