Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk has emerged as the highest loser amongst American Billionaires in 2022 according to Forbes.
Reports disclose that Musk has reportedly lost more than $130 billion from his net worth in 2022 as Tesla shares continue to fall, which his wealth is mostly tied to.
Meanwhile, globally, the world’s billionaires lost nearly $2 trillion combined in 2022, while in the United States, billionaires lost a total of $660 billion collectively.
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Musk’s net worth peaked at over $300 billion earlier this year, unfortunately, a 68% year-to-date decline in Tesla stock erased a huge chunk of that.
This saw him displaced from the number one position of the richest man in the world, overtaken by LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault.
Arnault through holding vehicles and family trusts owns a little over 60% of LVMH’s voting share class, which according to Forbes estimates his worth to $186.2 billion.
Despite the massive decline in Musk’s net worth, his $139 billion fortune still makes him the world’s second richest person, based on data as of December 23.
Although, few analysts predict that Musk might still witness a decline in his net worth, as more Tesla investors are concerned about his commitment to effectively juggle both Twitter and Tesla together.
Since he acquired Twitter for $44 billion in late October, shares of Tesla have dropped 50% compared to just a 3% decline for the Nasdaq 100. Musk has also sold billions of dollars of Tesla stock to fund his acquisition of Twitter.
His chaotic reign has also led to an exodus of advertisers from the micro-blogging social network, amid concerns about the regulation of speech and the surge of misinformation
While Musk is the biggest loser of 2022, he is not the only billionaire whose net worth took a nosedive.
Here’s how much five other U.S. billionaires lost in 2022 according to Forbes.
1.) Jeff Bezos CEO of Amazon lost an estimated sum of $80 billion
2.) Mark Zuckerberg CEO of Meta lost an estimated sum of $78 billion
3.) Larry Page Co-Founder of Google lost the sum of $40 billion
4.) Phil Knight Chairman of Knight, lost the sum of $18.3 billion
5.) Leonard Lauder Chair emeritus, The Estée Lauder Companies 2022 lose an estimated sum of $9.8 billion
Meanwhile, one notable billionaire dropped off the billionaire’s list, who is no other person than the famous U.S rapper Kanye West, who went from a billionaire status to a millionaire after sports brand company Adidas cut ties with him following his anti-semitic remarks.
The terminated business deal has resulted in his net worth decline massively. West who was once valued at $2 billion, now has a net worth of about $400 million.
Also, FTX Ex-CEO and former crypto millionaire Sam Bankman-fried went from being a billionaire to living in penury after his $32 billion company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which saw his net worth massively take a hit.