Elon Musk breaks Guinness World Record for largest loss of personal fortune in history

Elon Musk has broken the world record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Mr Musk’s total losses eclipse the previous record set by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000 of $58.6 billion.

The tech billionaire has lost approximately $182 billion (£153 billion) since November 2021, according to Forbes - although other sources suggest the figure could be closer to $200 billion.

Most of Mr Musk’s wealth is tied to his ownership of Tesla shares, which have plummeted 65% in 2022 since he bought Twitter for $44 billion in October.

He has sold nearly $23 billion worth of the electric vehicle company's stock to fund the purchase since April. The stock hit its lowest point since August 2020 earlier this month, and Tesla’s market value slid to $336 billion, down from over $1 trillion as recently as April.The tumultuous takeover, coupled with Mr Musk’s polarising behaviour on the platform, sparked the biggest Tesla stock sell-off since the company went public in 2010.

The decline in his fortunes has seen Mr Musk bumped off the world's richest person top spot with French founder of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), Bernard Arnault, taking title with an estimated net worth of $190 billion (£156 billion).

Many Tesla investors are worried Mr Musk has become too distracted as CEO of Twitter and is not giving his full attention to the electric vehicle company.

Mr Musk has said he would step down as Twitter CEO when he finds someone to run the social media platform.

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