Forbes labels Musk as 'Most Significant Loser'

In 2024, the wealth of Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, experienced a substantial dip.

Based on Forbes' magazine rankings released on Thursday, there's been a reduction of nearly $30 billion in Musk's net worth, the heftiest plunge compared to that of any other billionaire this year.

Although Musk, the creator of Tesla and SpaceX, continues to be the wealthiest person globally, his personal fortune has dropped from $251.3 billion at the start of the year to $221.4 billion as of June 28, marking the end of the second quarter's stock market trading of 2024.

Forbes attributed this unusual decrease to a boom in the stock market, which notably benefited "the megarich" and increased the combined net worth of the top ten richest people in the world to $1.66 trillion.

This reversal of fortune for Musk was influenced by a ruling by a Delaware court in January, which ruled his Tesla compensation package invalid due to the intervention of an activist investor. The bonus had an estimated value of $51 billion at that time. Now, Forbes has reduced the worth of these stock choices by 50%, presuming Musk wins them following potential legal action.

Since then, Tesla has relocated from Delaware, reestablished itself in Texas, and reinstated Musk’s compensation package. However, there's been a $20 billion slide in the value of Musk's 13% Tesla stake owing to diminished car delivery numbers and falling profits.

Musk still holds a $14.4 billion share in the generative artificial intelligence startup xAI, a $7 billion piece of X (formerly known as Twitter) which he procured in 2022, and an anticipated $75 billion stake in SpaceX, his privately-held aerospace organization, among other ventures.

Per a Forbes estimation, Musk's loss since November 2021 stands at approximately $99 billion, considering his portfolio was valued at around $320 billion at that point.

In March, Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos momentarily surpassed Musk to become the world’s wealthiest person but has since returned to being the second richest with a little over $214 billion. Bernard Arnault, the wealthiest man in Europe and the chief of LVMH, a luxury goods firm, is in third place with just under $197 billion.

The billionaire bonanza of 2024 largely spawned from an artificial intelligence uptrend. The biggest gainer has been NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, whose wealth increased by $64.1 billion this year, elevating him from 27th to 14th place in Forbes' rankings.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (up $61.5 billion), Dell CEO Michael Dell ($35.8 billion), Oracle chairman Larry Ellison (richer by $37.7 billion), and Larry Page, Google's co-founder (up $33.1 billion) also benefitted greatly from the stock market's graciousness.

Others who didn’t fare as well include Carlos Slim Helu, telecommunication tycoon from Mexico (down $13.9 billion), Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike (down $9.2 billion), and Bezos' former spouse Mackenzie Scott who donated $4.7 billion majorly to liberal political causes.

Mathilde Moreau for TROIB News