Elon Musk Lost $60 Billion, Still World’s Richest Man

Elon Musk’s net worth has dropped $60 billion this year. However, he is still the world’s richest man according to Bloomberg. His net worth is $372 billion. No. 2 on the list is Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), who has a net worth of $301 billion.

By most measures, Musk has had a rough year. After joining the Trump Administration, he had a public falling out with the President. His time working for the US government included job cuts and negative comments about the management of various government departments. He also became known as an arch-conservative. This alienated many Tesla owners and portion customers. He also made comments about European leaders, which hurt Tesla sales in the EU.

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) announced in early January that its global sales had fallen in 2024. In 2013, there were 1.81 million. Last year, the total was 1.79 million. It was a sign of weakness that certainly would not have been expected in the middle of 2024.

Tesla had other challenges. Musk made a great deal out of the launch of the Cybertruck. As a full-sized pickup, it entered the most successful segment of the US vehicle market. Sales were poor and have, by some estimates, gotten worse. Cybertruck had another important role. Tesla has not launched a new model in years. The lineup was getting stale.

In terms of Musk’s net worth, the EV company has a market cap of $1.1 trillion, which makes it the 10th most valuable company in the world. Its share price is down 18% since January 1. Musk owned 13% of Tesla. Tesla’s board recently granted Musk a restricted stock compensation package that was worth about $30 billion.

One reason that Musk’s wealth has not fallen further is that he has convinced many on Wall Street that Tesla is becoming a robotics and AI company. The first major sign of this, Musk argues, is the new self-driving features highlighted in Tesla’s tests of the robotaxi program in Austin, Texas. It is still too early to tell how well the system works. What is not too early to know is that he has competition. The most advanced of these is Alphabet’s Waymo, which has added 10 new test cities this year.

Other Musk holdings have helped his overall wealth. The largest of these is the most successful rocket maker in the world. SpaceX virtually controls the U.S. rocket business and is the leader in the industry worldwide. It has established itself as the preeminent rocket launch provider, lofting satellites, cargo, and people to space for NASA, the Pentagon, and commercial partners. It is building out a large network of Starlink satellites providing internet service. Some observers believe Musk’s faltering relationship with the president could hurt him as he seeks additional business from the U.S. government. SpaceX was recently valued at $400 billion.

Musk owns 42% of SpaceX and has 79% of the company’s voting shares. He can make decisions about SpaceX without challenge.

Among Musk’s other holdings, the most valuable may eventually be xAI, a major rival to OpenAI in the race to control the future of AI. xAI continues to raise billions, which puts its value at nearly $200 billion. Musk owns over half of xAI. The valuation of OpenAI recently hit $300 billion. Musk has merged xAI with the social media company X.

Musk also has stakes in several other companies, including implantable brain-computer interface operation Neuralink.

The post Elon Musk Lost $60 Billion, Still World’s Richest Man appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..