Elon Musk has suffered the largest loss of fortune in modern history: his net worth has decreased by more than $ 200 billion (166 billion pounds).
The billionaire, who recently became the owner of the social network Twitter, has lost more than half of his fortune in the last 13 months.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s net worth has shrunk by $208 billion (£172 billion) — about the same as Greece’s annual GDP. This amount also exceeds the total net worth of the richest man in the world, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault.
Musk was previously at the top of the Bloomberg billionaires index, but has since been overtaken by Arnaud. Its net worth was previously $338 billion (280 billion pounds). Now it is 132 billion dollars (110 billion pounds).
The huge drop in Musk’s equity is largely due to the collapse of Tesla shares over the past year. “Don’t worry too much about the stock market frenzy,” the CEO recently told employees of the car company, according to Reuters. “Since we are showing excellent results, the market recognizes this.”
Since Musk took over Twitter in October, the site has faced a number of difficulties. The CEO immediately fired several top managers and half of his staff, and users were soon advised to archive their Twitter history after rumors that the platform could collapse.
Earlier this month, Musk said he would step down as CEO of the site as soon as he found “someone stupid enough to take the job,” after Twitter users voted for his resignation in a poll.
Meanwhile, earlier today, the billionaire responded to thousands of people who reported problems using Twitter, saying it “works for me.” Shortly before midnight last night (December 28), DownDetector, a website tracking Twitter traffic, reported that the social networking site was having problems.
