Forbes calls Musk ‘biggest loser’

The fortune of the Tesla and SpaceX founder has taken a hit in 2024

Elon Musk’s net worth has decreased by almost $30 billion, more than any other billionaire in the world this year, according to Forbes magazine rankings published on Thursday.

Although the Tesla and SpaceX founder remains the richest person on earth, his personal fortune declined from $251.3 billion at the beginning of the year to $221.4 billion as of June 28, the final day of stock market trading in the second quarter of 2024.

Forbes described this as “a rare loss in what was otherwise a great stretch for the megarich as the stock market boomed” and the net worth of the world’s ten wealthiest people grew to $1.66 trillion. 

Musk’s setback came down to a Delaware judge’s verdict from January, invalidating his Tesla compensation package on behalf of an activist investor. The bonus was valued at $51 billion at the time. Forbes has discounted the value of those stock options by 50% even if Musk somehow manages to get them, citing likely litigation.

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Tesla has since left Delaware, re-incorporated in Texas, and approved Musk’s compensation package again. The value of Musk’s 13% stake in Tesla has decreased by about $20 billion, however, as the company’s shares slipped due to declining car deliveries and profits. 

Musk still has a $14.4 billion stake in the generative artificial intelligence startup xAI, a $7 billion stake in X (formerly Twitter), which he acquired in 2022, and an estimated $75 billion stake in his private aerospace company SpaceX, among other enterprises.

According to Forbes, Musk has lost an estimated $99 billion since November 2021, when his portfolio was worth about $320 billion.

In March, Musk was briefly dethroned as the world’s richest man by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has since slipped back to the number-two spot at just over $214 billion. Bringing up the top three is Bernard Arnault, Europe’s richest man and head of the luxury goods company LVMH, now valued under $197 billion.

Much of 2024’s billionaire bonanza has been the result of an artificial intelligence boom. The biggest winner has been NVIDIA chief executive Jensen Huang, who gained $64.1 billion this year and moved up from 27th place to 14th in the Forbes rankings.

The stock market has also been kind to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (up $61.5 billion), Dell CEO Michael Dell ($35.8 billion), Oracle chairman Larry Ellison ($37.7 billion richer), and Google co-founder Larry Page (up $33.1 billion).

Other big ‘losers’ were Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu (down $13.9 billion), Nike co-founder Phil Knight (down $9.2 billion), and Bezos’ ex-wife Mackenzie Scott, who spent $4.7 billion mainly on liberal political causes.