Elon Musk’s style of making waves continued into Saturday, with the world’s second-richest man wining an ignominious feat, courtesy of the Guinness World Records.
That feat? Becoming owner of the largest loss of personal fortune in history.
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By the numbers: Musk’s $44 billion investment in Twitter, coupled with a tumultuous drop in share price for Tesla, have spelled a rough 2022 for the South African billionaire.
- Guinness, relying on Forbes records, estimated Musk lost around $182 billion since November 2021. The number could be higher, near $200 billion.
- Musk’s losses undoubtedly exceed the previous record holder, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who lost $58.6 billion in 2000.
The backstory: Guinness pointed to most of the losses occurring after Musk announced his intention to acquire Twitter for $44 billion last April.
- Musk sold $7 billion worth of Tesla stock as he was trying to finance his deal to buy the social media company and another $4 billion in November.
- Musk then sold $3.58 billion more worth of stock in December, bringing his total sell-off to more than $23 billion since April.
