Elon Musk suffers financial blow as Tesla boss loses £31billion in two weeks

04 November 2023 , 17:13

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Elon Musk has seen his fortune bit by huge losses (Image: Getty Images)

For most people, having a billion pounds is a distant dream but space and cars entrepreneur Elon Musk has managed to lose a whopping £31billion ($41bn) in the space of just two weeks.

The major cash shock came from a brutal third-quarter profits hit for electric vehicles firm Tesla which in turn saw shares in the company nosedive, while X (formerly Twitter) has also lost the American a massive amount since he bought the company last October.

Reported profits and sales for Tesla were well below expectations and as a result its stock dropped by 23 percent, taking almost £153 billion ($189bn) off its market capitalisation and therefore giving Musk's personal net worth a major hit – leaving him with a fortune of £155bn ($193bn), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Twitter, now X, has been a source of big losses (AFP via Getty Images)

And with X, the social media platform has lost around £20bn ($25bn) since its purchase for £35.5bn ($44bn). Musk told his investors that, "we dug our own grave with Cybertruck" as they are costly and are hard to get on to the marketplace. He added that Tesla also will be unable to hit its yearly output target of a quarter of a million cars until 2025. The revelations may leave his investors wondering if Tesla isn't growing as a company as quickly as Musk had previously promised.

This will leave the one million customers who have reservations sitting for several years hanging for longer. Tesla's quarterly revenue was £18.9bn ($23.4bn), up nine percent but below analysts' expectations of £19.4bn ($24.1bn). The electric car market has slowed down due to EVs being more expensive to produce than traditional ones that run on gasoline, causing serious problems for Musk, as his wealth is mainly tied up in the 13 percent of Tesla stock he owns.

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The billionaire saw the company's share price peak at around £331 ($410), bringing in almost £275bn ($340bn) for him in November 2021. But shares are now down to £161 ($200) and Musk's net worth has gone down by 40 percent.

However, he is still the world's richest person, well in advance of LVMH chief executive, Bernard Arnault with a fortune of £151.5bn ($187.6bn). And some of Musk's decision, especially where X is concerned – such as laying off 80 percent of the staff and changing the name has seen a lot of advertisers shun the site.

Paul Donald