Billionaire Elon Musk, once the richest man in the world, has broken a recent record.
Tesla founder and Twitter owner became the first person in history to lose $200 billion of his net value according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The multibillion-dollar bloodbath got here after Musk, 51, became the second person to amass a fortune of greater than $200 billion in 2021, after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Musk, whose net value peaked in November 2021 at $340 billion, his fortune has fallen to $137 million as Tesla shares have fallen 65% over the past 12 months.
It was the worst 12 months thus far for electric automotive manufacturers.
The drop included an 11% drop on Tuesday alone after the Wall Street Journal reported that a surge in COVID cases forced Tesla to temporarily halt production in Shanghai.
In a memo sent to employees on Wednesday, the billionaire thanked employees for his or her “exceptional performance” throughout the 12 months, while downplaying the company’s dismal stock performance.
“Don’t fret about the stock market madness,” Musk said in the memo obtained by CNBC.
“Because we show continuous excellent results, the market will appreciate it.”
Musk was stripped of the title of the world’s richest man earlier this month – and passed the baton to Bernard Arnault, the French president and CEO of LVMH.
Musk’s historical losses indicate how high Musk and Tesla have risen during the pandemic.
Despite only holding a small portion of the electric vehicle market, Tesla was valued at greater than $1 trillion by October 2021 – joining other tech giants like Apple, Amazon and Google’s parent company Alphabet, Bloomberg reported.
But with competitors quickly catching up and difficult Tesla’s dominance in the electric vehicle market, Musk’s attention has shifted to his latest enterprise as owner and CEO of social media giant Twitter.
According to Bloomberg’s Wealth Index, Musk was forced to sell most of his Tesla stock this 12 months in a large $44 billion Twitter purchase.
Musk also now owns a $44.8 billion stake in his Space Exploration Technologies Corp – about 42.2% of the company, according to a recent filing reviewed by the news website.
Since acquiring Twitter, Musk has taken major steps to cut costs at the social media company.
It has laid off about 75% of its 7,500 employees and is closing the company’s Seattle offices after reportedly refusing to pay rent.