Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest individual, faced a significant setback in his financial standing on Thursday. His net worth took a hit, plunging by $16.7 billion, leaving him with a still impressive fortune of $209 billion. The primary source of his wealth remains his 13% ownership in Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer.
The cause of this downturn can be traced back to Tesla’s third-quarter earnings report, which failed to meet market expectations. Tesla’s stock price tumbled by 9.3% in response to these disappointing results. The company reported a drop in sales for the quarter, delivering 435,059 vehicles. It saw its profit margins dip to their lowest point in over four years. This was the first quarterly decline in sales for Tesla in the current year, and it was exacerbated by the company’s repeated price cuts on its vehicles.
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Surprisingly, despite these challenges, Elon Musk’s overall wealth for 2023 has witnessed substantial growth, surging by over $70 billion. This increase has been buoyed by the resurgence of Tesla’s stock price, even as the company’s financial performance faced headwinds.
Despite its recent struggles, Tesla remains the world’s most valuable automaker. It is committed to placing 1.8 million new vehicles in the hands of customers by the year’s end. Additionally, the long-anticipated Cybertrucks from Tesla are finally set to hit the roads. However, they lag a couple of years behind schedule, with deliveries starting in November.
Shifting gears, Elon Musk has also ventured into social media by acquiring Twitter, which has been rebranded as X. One noteworthy development is the introduction of a nominal $1 annual fee for users in the Philippines and New Zealand. This move, according to Musk, is designed to address the issue of automated accounts, commonly known as “bots.”
Under Musk’s ownership, X has seen a decline in its daily active users, with the platform now boasting 225 million users, representing an 11.6% decrease since his acquisition. This decline in user numbers was disclosed by Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO, during a recent appearance at Vox Media’s Code 2023 tech conference.
In a separate legal matter, Elon Musk’s company, X Corp, formerly known as Twitter, faced a legal dispute with Parag Agrawal and a group of former Twitter executives. The outcome was a ruling by Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, who determined that Twitter had not fulfilled its obligation to cover the legal expenses incurred by these individuals during their tenure at the company.
