Elon Musk takes a $100 billion hit as Tesla shares slide, stripping it of its trillion-dollar status.
The 53-year-old sits comfortably as the world’s richest person but things aren't looking as positive for his electric car company.
Since mid-December, the Tesla CEO's net worth has dropped by more than $100 billion as Tesla’s stock continues its downward spiral.
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On Tuesday (25 February), Tesla shares fell another 8%, closing at $302.80, marking a 25% decline so far this year.
The data shows Tesla’s vehicle registrations in Europe plummeted by 45% in January compared to the previous year, even as overall EV sales on the continent increased. Additionally, sales in China seem to show a downward trend.
Some analysts believe European buyers are turning away from Tesla due to Musk’s deep involvement in the Trump administration, which is currently straining US-Europe relations.
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Others are saying investors are cashing out after Tesla’s massive gains over the past year. Despite the recent slump, the stock has increased 52% in the last 12 months. Gary Black, managing partner at The Future Fund investment group, warned that Tesla shares could slide even further this year given the company's direction on 2025 vehicle deliveries.
Musk’s influence stretches far beyond Tesla - he also leads SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), Neuralink, and AI company xAI, not to mention his controversial role in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
But Tesla investors have long accepted Musk’s multiple responsibilities and they’ve also credited his leadership for the company’s success. So if anything, they view him as more than capable of juggling multiple ventures.
However, events like the recent robotaxi reveal don't show overwhelming positive feedback. The I, Robot event, back in October, left many investors and Wall Street analysts unimpressed, saying it 'disappointed expectations in several areas.'
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As a result, Tesla's stock fell by roughly 15%, and since Musk owned around 13% of the company at the time, his net worth took a hit as well.
Furthermore, Elon Musk and Tesla are being sued by the production company behind Blade Runner 2049 over the robotaxi design.
Nonetheless, Musk continues to roll out new Tesla models, adapting to shifting driver preferences, and the company is also expanding its full self-driving technology into China.
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“Tesla’s superior products, new more affordable vehicle, which I believe will be a new form factor and expand Tesla’s total addressable market, and the promise of unsupervised autonomy will sell more Teslas,” Black wrote on X.
At the time of writing, the tech billionaire's net worth sits at $379.9 billion but it's still a massive $144 billion richer than the second-richest person in the world, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.