Elon Musk has the biggest loss of personal wealth in Guinness World Records history

Loss suffered by Elon Musk: Mr. Musk’s net worth fell from $320 billion in November 2021 to $137 billion as of January 2023, mostly as a result of the underperformance of Tesla’s shares.

According to the announcement made by Guinness Globe Record (GWR) on Friday, Elon Musk has set a new record for the biggest loss of personal fortune in the history of the world. The organisation highlighted in a blog post that other sources indicate the sum is closer to $200 billion, but it referenced an estimate from Forbes that Mr. Musk has lost approximately $182 billion since November 2021. Forbes’ estimate was mentioned in the blog post.

“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,” GWR wrote in its blog.

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The Hill reports that Elon Musk’s net worth has decreased from $320 billion in November 2021 to $137 billion as of January 2023, with the majority of this decline being attributable to the underperformance of Tesla’s shares. According to the information provided by the outlet, Mr. Musk sold Tesla stock worth a total of $4 billion in November and $7 billion when he was attempting to raise money for his acquisition of Twitter. Since April, he has sold more than $23 billion worth of shares, and he sold another $3.58 billion worth of stock just last month.

“Musk’s misfortunes also saw him lose his status as the world’s richest person to Bernard Arnault (France), founder of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), who has an estimated net worth of $190 billion,” GRW said.

This frightening fall accelerated in October, the month after Mr. Musk purchased Twitter for almost $44 billion, according to the organisation, which reported this fact. “The tumultuous takeover, coupled with Musk’s polarizing behaviour on the platform, sparked the biggest Tesla stock sell-off since the company went public in 2010,” it added.

Meanwhile, according to Guinness, the value of Masayoshi Son’s company, Softbank, was completely wiped away by the dot-com meltdown. Son’s net worth peaked at $78 billion in February 2000, and it had dropped to $19.4 billion by July of the same year. The company was eventually able to recover after it had successfully bought a number of technological businesses in the United States and the United Kingdom. “As Elon Musk continues to build his own tech conglomerate, we won’t be surprised to see him bounce back too at some point in the future,” the Guinness blog post said.