Billionaire optimistic long-term, sees opportunity from sale of X
Elon Musk has lost $102 billion of his personal net worth over the last year according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and things may get worse before they (might) get better.
However, he remains the world’s richest person with a fortune of $330 billion as of March 30, well ahead of Jeff Bezos (who has lost $24 billion) at $214 billion and Mark Zukerberg (down $3 billion) at $204 billion.
And to put Musk’s loss into context, of the top 10 names on the list, only Warren Buffett (up $23 billion to $165 billion) and Bill Gates (up $3 billion to $162 billion) have gained year-over-year.
But a $102 billion loss is still highlight significant, especially when a big part of the story is that many investors feel that his focus is on DOGE rather than running Tesla, and the car firm is facing a backlash from consumers unimpressed with his axeman role in the Trump administration.
At a town hall event Sunday, Musk admitted that his government efficiency efforts are distracting him from Tesla: “It’s costing me a lot to be in this job,” he said, focusing on his own loss before adding: “My Tesla stock and the stock of everyone who holds Tesla has gone, went roughly in half. I mean it’s a big deal.”
Tesla stock was trading around $252 in pre-market trading Monday, down from $480 at its peak in December.
Earlier this month, Ross Gerber, whose Los Angels based RIA Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management has AUM of around $3.3 billion, called for Musk to either step down from his DOGE role or as CEO of Tesla.
X Sale
Meanwhile, Musk’s social media platform X was sold late last week. The buyer? Elon Musk’s xAI holdings, an artificial intelligence startup, which valued the former Twitter business at $33 billion excluding debt. The merged entity will be called XAI Holdings and will have a value of $100 billion excluding debt.
“XAI and X’s futures are intertwined,” Musk posted on X in announcing the transaction. “Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”
