By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Elon Musk is no longer considered the richest person in the world after his Tesla stock plummeted.
Musk, 51, lost his pole position on Tuesday to the Louis Vuitton group chief Bernard Arnault after an extended slump in the value of Tesla shares, which has cost him more than $100billion this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Arnault, 73, is the chairman and CEO of LVMH – the luxury goods conglomerate that parents brands such as Dior, Tiffany and Bulgari, is now worth $170.6billion.,
Musk’s worth now sits at $163.1billion, according to the Bloomberg Index.
Musk’s worth in recent years has largely been pinned to the value of Tesla, which skyrocketed during the pandemic as the company became profitable, but has suffered this year in part due to concerns over production.
In January 2020 Musk was worth around $28billion, according to the index, but in November 2021 he peaked at $336billion.
This year was made tougher for Musk due to his purchase of Twitter for $44billion – a deal from which he tried to back away from for some months.
In order to complete it he was required to sell $15billion-worth of his Tesla stock. The completion of the deal in October alone cause Bloomberg to knock $10billion off his value.
Top 10 wealthiest according to Bloomberg:
1. Bernard Arnault (LVMH: $171B)
2. Elon Musk (Twitter, Tesla, SpaceX: 163B)
3. Gautam Adani (Adani Group: $125B)
4. Bill Gates (Microsoft: $115B)
5. Jeff Bezos (Amazon: $114B)
6. Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway: $108B)
7. Larry Ellison (Oracle: $94B)
8. Mukesh Ambani (Reliance: $90B)
9, Steve Ballmer (Microsoft: $89B)
10, Larry Page (Google: $87B)
Musk made various changes in attempt to turn the company profitable, most notable by cutting its workforce almost in half.
One of the most significant challenges Musk is facing, one that he has acknowledged himself, relates to advertisers pulling ads from the social media platform.
Musk announced soon after his Twitter acquisition an $8 per month subscription plan for users that wanted blue ticks to appear next to their names.
