The wealthiest man in the world is no longer Elon Musk. After a significant decline in the value of his shares in the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla this year, Elon Musk is no longer the wealthiest man in the world.
According to Forbes and Bloomberg, Bernard Arnault, the head of luxury goods company LVMH, has surpassed Elon Musk for the top slot. Mr. Musk previously held that position. Mr. Musk is Tesla’s CEO and the company’s principal shareholder, with an estimated 14% stake.
In October, he finished a $44 billion takeover of the social media site Twitter.
Forbes estimates that Mr. Musk is currently worth around $178 billion (£152 billion).
In contrast, Bernard Arnault is worth $188 billion. After months of legal fighting, Mr. Musk’s Twitter acquisition was finally finalized, and some have highlighted the takeover’s diversion as one of the reasons.
After investing in Twitter at the beginning of the year, Mr. Musk made his $44 billion offer in April, which many people thought was excessively costly. He backed out of the agreement in July, citing worries about the volume of phony accounts on the network.
In the end, Twitter officials filed a lawsuit to enforce Mr. Musk’s offer. The “circus” around the Twitter deal, according to investor Dan Ives from Wedbush Securities, has hurt Tesla’s stock price.
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As the overhang develops with each tweet, “Musk has gone from a superhero to Tesla’s stock, to a villain in the eyes of the Street,” he told the BBC.
The Twitter circus performance has damaged the Musk brand and is a significant cloud over.
To finance his purchase, Mr. Musk sold shares of Tesla for billions of dollars, which aided in the share price decline.
Investors are also concerned that when the economy declines, higher financing costs deter consumers, and rival companies increase their electric vehicle offers, demand for the company’s electric cars may slow.
Recalls, government inquiries into crashes, and its autopilot system have hurt Tesla.
