Elon Musk’s Twitter posts. His own wealth is also deteriorating in the same way. Tesla Inc.’s CEO lost his rank as the world’s second-richest individual to LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault on Monday, as the electric vehicle maker’s stock fell 2.2 percent. This was in addition to last week’s drop, which came in the midst of a global rout in technology stocks and new signs of issues in the company’s China operations.
Musk created confusion again over the weekend when he implied that Tesla is planning to sell or had sold its Bitcoin assets. However, he later clarified in a tweet that the company had not done so. The 49-year-old businessman became the world’s wealthiest man in January following Tesla’s stock rising to nearly 750 percent last year in the midst of a rise in technology-related stocks. Despite posting a record profit in the first-quarter, the Palo Alto, California-based company’s stock has dropped by about a fifth since then, in the midst of a global semiconductor shortage and increased competition from conventional carmakers.
According to Bloomberg’s wealth index, based on the US-based billionaires, Musk’s wealth has plummeted by $9.1 billion this year. In the meantime, the 72-year-old billionaire investor, business magnet and art collector Arnault has risen to the top of the list, with his net worth rising by nearly $47 billion to $161.2 billion as sales of his company’s luxury products soar in China and other Asian markets.
