Elon Musk’s fortune slumped $20.3 billion Thursday after Tesla Inc. warned it may have to keep cutting the prices of its electric vehicles, sending shares tumbling.
The drop in net worth to $234.4 billion is the seventh-largest decline ever among those in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and further narrows the wealth gap between Musk and Bernard Arnault, the world’s two richest people. Musk’s fortune still exceeds that of Arnault, chairman of luxury goods maker LVMH, by about $33 billion.
Musk wasn’t the only US technology billionaire having a tough day. Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos, Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison, former Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer, Meta Platforms Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet Inc. co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin shed a collective $20.8 billion in net worth as the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 2.3%.
Shares of Austin-based Tesla slid 9.7% to $262.90 in New York, the most since April 20, after the company warned of more hits to its already-shrinking profitability. Months of markdowns have taken a toll on automotive gross margin, which fell to a four-year low in the second quarter. Musk, the company’s CEO, said Wednesday Tesla will have to keep lowering prices if interest rates continue to rise.
Musk, 52, derives his wealth primarily from his stake in the EV manufacturer, as well as his holdings in Space Exploration Technologies and Twitter. His wealth had increased about $118 billion this year through Wednesday, as shares of Tesla climbed 136%.
Arnault, 74, has seen his net worth rise by $39 billion this year to $201.2 billion. Shares of Paris-based LVMH have gained 26% in 2023.
Commonwealth Financial joins a number of firm that have recently cut jobs.
A slow drip of disclosures, an executive exit, and a stock that fell hard before the suit landed
New research finds unpaid caregivers are more likely to struggle with debt, lower savings and diminished retirement confidence than non-caregivers.
Large broker-dealers and registered investment advisors have, since 2020, been developing or sticking to strategies and tactics to combat the pain of intense, short-term market volatility
Centaurus Financial touts its independence as a key selling point at a time when many firms are being swallowed up.
Northern Trust’s Ken Lassner shows advisors how to convert volatility into after-tax portfolio gains
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
