Elon Musk bought Twitter for USD 44 Billion last year and was the richest person in the world at the time. However, after his Twitter takeover and the tumultuous actions that followed, the business tycoon’s wealth dropped by a whopping USD 200 billion and he became the first person in history to lose such a massive amount.
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And now, Elon Musk is again making headlines after being recognized by Guinness World Records for breaking the world record for losing the most money in history. A press release by the organization confirmed the same and stated that “Elon Musk has officially broken the world record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history.”
Elon Musk breaks world record
The press release by Guinness World Records further states that previously, the record was held by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son who had lost USD 56 billion. “Although the exact figure is almost impossible to ascertain, Musk’s total losses far surpass the previous record of $58.6 billion, set by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000,” says the press release.
Plummeting Tesla stocks
Much of Musk’s personal fortune is tied to Tesla stocks. The entrepreneur was one of the early investors of the company and eventually went on to hold the largest shares in the automobile company. The electric car brand was founded as Tesla Motors in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. In 2004, Musk became the largest shareholder of the company by investing a gigantic amount of USD 6.5 million. He then assumed his role as the CEO and product architect of the company in 2008.
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It is no secret that Musk sold large chunks of his Tesla shares in 2022, at first, to buy Twitter, and then perhaps to cope with the losses of his brand-new acquisition.
Musk sold Tesla shares worth a combined value of USD 15.4 billion in April and August 2022. At the time, he had said that there were no ‘further sales planned’. However, in November 2022, Musk sold another 19.5 million Tesla shares worth about USD 4 billion. “Billionaire entrepreneur and Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk sells 19.5 million Tesla shares, a SEC filing shows,” a tweet by Reuters said at the time.
Tesla stocks began plummeting in 2022 and reached their biggest annual decline the same year. In such turbulent times, Musk had reportedly sent an email to all Tesla employees telling them to not be bothered about the ‘stock market craziness’.
Musk’s Twitter acquisition
When Elon Musk bought Twitter, nobody saw what was coming. From firing the company’s top level executives within a few hours of assuming his new role to engaging in social media spats with former employees, sending distressing company-wide emails, making changes in the company’s day-to-day operations and whatnot, Musk made headlines every now and then. As a result, Twitter was no longer the place to work it used to be and the majority of its workforce was either sacked or had resigned.
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