Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has established a new Guinness World Record for shedding the most money. Since November 2021, the erratic businessman has lost over $180 billion, according to the publication. Although Musk’s total losses greatly outstrip the previous record of $58.6 billion, which was established by Japanese tech billionaire Masayoshi Son in 2000, the wealth is an approximate amount according to Guinness World Records.
The world’s richest man at the time, Elon Musk, bought Twitter last year for USD 44 billion. But the chaotic events that followed the business tycoon’s purchase of Twitter caused his wealth to plummet by an astounding USD 200 billion, making him the first individual in history to experience such a huge loss.
Elon Musk is once again making headlines as Guinness World Records recognised him for breaking the record for the most money ever lost in a single incident. According to a statement from the group, who also confirmed the earlier assertion, Elon Musk has unofficially broken the world record for the greatest loss of personal fortune in history.
An IT investor from Japan named Masayoshi Son previously held the record, according to a Guinness World Records press release, with a loss of USD 56 billion. The exact figure is practically difficult to verify, but according to the press release, “Musk’s overall losses greatly surpass the previous record of $58.6 billion, recorded by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000.”
Media reports claim that Elon Musk’s net worth dramatically dropped from $320 billion in November 2021 to $137 billion in January 2023 as a result of Tesla’s shares performing poorly. According to the sources, Musk raised $7 billion in Tesla stock sales and an additional $4 billion in November to fund his bid to buy Twitter. In the last month, he sold an additional $3.58 billion worth of stock, bringing his total sell-off to more than $23 billion since April.
Guinness added that the dot-com bust completely destroyed the value of Masayoshi Son’s company, Softbank, whose net worth fell from a peak of $78 billion in February 2000 to $19.4 billion in July of that same year.