Elon Musk has lost R626 billion in 2022
Elon Musk has lost $37.6 billion (R626 billion) in 2022 after his wealth ramped up rapidly from 2020.
According to data from Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Musk had accumulated a fortune of $24.6 billion (R410 billion) by 2020, and by July 2022, it had grown to $233 billion (R3.9 trillion).
However, his wealth fell from approximately $270.6 billion (R4.5 trillion) at the start of 2022.
A fair proportion of his losses can be attributed to a decline in Tesla’s share prices since January 2022.
At the start of the year, Tesla shares — of which Musk owns around 175 million — were valued at $1,199.78 (R19,985), and they have since dropped about 33% to $797.56 (R13,285).
It should be noted that Musk lost R197 billion in May after his posts on Twitter caused Tesla’s shares to plummet to the sub-$700 level.
His posts involved him trashing Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) and his announcement that he was switching from Democrat to Republican.
“In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party,” Musk said.
“But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.”
The chart below tracks Elon Musk’s net worth from 2013 to 2022, using data from Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
Musk’s turbulent Twitter deal
Musk agreed to buy Twitter in April 2022 for $44 billion (R743 billion) or $54.20 (R915) per share.
The world’s richest man began building his approximate 9% stake in the social media platform in January 2022 and started ramping up his criticism of the microblogging site in March.
Twitter then offered Musk a position on its board, which he rejected. In April, he proposed taking the platform private through a buyout bid.
Twitter accepted Musk’s “best and final” offer of $54.20 (R902) per share in cash less than two weeks later.
The Tesla CEO said he’d make the platform a bastion of free speech and dropped other hints about the changes he’d make as the owner.
Most of the changes he planned were related to the business’s finances, such as:
- Cutting Twitter’s reliance on advertising to under 50%;
- Generating $15 million (R250 million) in revenue using payments business;
- Increasing revenue per user by $5.39 (R89.78);
- Attaining 104 million new subscribers for an unknown product called X Subscribers;
- Reaching 931 million users by 2028;
- Quintupling Twitter’s revenue to $26.4 billion (R440 billion) by 2028; and
- Hiring 3,600 new employees by 2025.
Former Twitter executive Jason Goldman slammed Musk’s free speech ideas, describing them as “very naive” and “unserious”.
He also criticised Musk’s targeting of Twitter employees in his posts.
“You absolutely should not allow the prospective owner of the company to troll your employees for the decisions that they made,” Goldman said.
Musk’s online actions contributed to a wave of online abuse directed at Twitter’s top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, putting him at risk of violating the deal’s conditions within three days of agreeing to it.
The acquisition hit a speed bump when Musk asked Twitter to prove its claims that bots make up less than 5% of the accounts on the platform — or he’d call off the deal.
Musk said he expects the figure is closer to 20%, adding that it could be as high as 90%.
The Tesla CEO terminated the Twitter acquisition deal in early July, causing the microblogging company’s stock price to slide 9%.
Twitter’s lawyers said the termination was “invalid and wrongful”, and the company instigated legal proceedings to sue the world’s richest man for breaching the contract.
The trial is set to begin in October 2022.
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