Elon Musk, once worth as much as US$340 billion, has been displaced as the world’s richest person by Bernard Arnault.
Musk, 51, has seen his fortune tumble by more than US$100 billion since January to US$163.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index – less than the US$170.8 billion net worth of Arnault, 73, whose wealth largely derives from his 48 per cent ownership of fashion giant LVMH.
Musk’s fall from atop the rankings – the first time it has happened since he was number two in September 2021 – caps a tumultuous year for the frenetic billionaire. He shocked the world in April with his offer to take Twitter private for US$44 billion, in a brazen display of how the wealthiest individuals could wield their massive fortunes.
But his agreement coincided with the Federal Reserve and other central banks embarking on their most aggressive round of monetary tightening in a generation, slashing the valuations of high-flying companies like Musk’s Tesla. The electric carmaker’s stock is down more than 50 per cent this year.
Tesla fell 4.1 per cent on Tuesday to US$160.95, the lowest closing price since November 2020.
Musk tried for months to get out of the Twitter deal, but failed. He offloaded more than US$15 billion in Tesla shares – about US$8.5 billion in April, then another US$6.9 billion in August – to raise enough cash to fund the purchase.
Once he finalised the Twitter acquisition in October, the Bloomberg wealth index knocked US$10 billion from his fortune, reflecting that shares of similar businesses have slumped since he made his bid.
Musk has pledged to turn around the social media platform, but he faces several challenges – some of his own making. He blasted Apple and threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store at a time when other companies were already pulling their advertising from the site.
Meanwhile, Twitter is poised to face annual interest costs that exceed a measure of its earnings for all of 2021. Musk’s bankers are considering providing him with new margin loans backed by Tesla stock to replace some of the high-interest debt he layered on Twitter, Bloomberg News reported.
For all the latest world News Click Here
