“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour”
-ELON MUSK
The Tesla founder and Twitter CEO, Elon Musk has broken a new record recently. He has become the first person in history to lose $200 billion in net worth. This all happened due to a sharp decline in Tesla shares in 2022 by 65%. This has been regarded as the electric car manufacturers worst year to date.
A couple of years ago in January 2021, Elon Musk became the second person to have a personal wealth of more than $200 billion, months after Jeff Bezos did the same. Elon's net worth peaked at $340 billion on 4 November 2021. He remained the world's richest person until he was overtaken by Bernard Arnault, the French tycoon behind luxury goods powerhouse LVMH last month. Bernard currently owns a net worth of $162 billion.
But months later, the most brutal criticism so far in 2023 came when he intimated that there’d be more dramatic events this year. Elon Musk is now the world’s first person to lose $200 billion in net worth, sending the Twitter CEO’s total wealth plummeting to $137 billion.
Musk, who has been preoccupied with his new toy Twitter since his $44 billion in 2021, has been shown no mercy by the social media site’s users after a series of controversial decisions which led the company into decline. Musk, whose net worth peaked in November 2021 at $340 billion, in the past year has seen his wealth dip to $137 million as Tesla shares plunged 65%. The company is facing mounting challenges which include rising costs, the risk that a recession will slower the demand and competitive threats.
All these mounting factors led to a decline in Tesla’s production. It aimed at producing 2.4 million vehicles in 2023 but the final output stuck to below 2 million because of increasing competition from major car manufacturers and erosion of Tesla’s core customer base due to Musk’s inconsistent tweets.
Even Musk has acknowledged to having too much on his plate, which has ultimately led him to find a new CEO for Twitter.
It is said that Tesla was priced for perfection and perfection is hard to come by. Even after this year’s record 65% drop, the carmaker’s rocketing surge during 2020 and 2021 has left it with a stock-market value of $389 billion, which is more than the combined stock of Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors, Stellantis NV and Ford Motor.
DO YOU KNOW?
Tesla has been accused of a toxic workplace culture grounded in racist and sexist abuse and discrimination against its employees.
BY -
Sonit Premwani & Mannat Khandelwal
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