Elon Musk's net worth fell below $400 billion for the first time in two months, dragged down by a double-digit slide in Tesla Inc.'s share price.
The automaker's stock has fallen 27% after hitting an all-time high in mid-December on hopes that Musk's proximity to President Donald Trump would boost the company's fortunes. Tesla shares and options make up more than 60% of Musk's wealth, which peaked at $486.4 billion on Dec. 17 in the wake of Trump's election, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Last week was Tesla's worst since early October, with shares falling 11% after reporting dismal monthly sales. Deliveries in Germany tumbled 59% to the lowest levels since 2021, while China sales fell 11.5% from a year earlier amid competition from regional rival BYD Co.
The shares dropped Monday for the fourth straight day in New York trading, sliding 3% to $350.73.
Musk's political reinvention was a key driver for Tesla stock post-election, and the 53-year-old billionaire has devoted the majority of his attention to Washington since inauguration day.
He's marshaled DOGE's cost-cutting efforts in the three weeks since Trump took office, gutting USAID, scrutinizing the Treasury Department's internal payments data and leading a campaign to reduce the federal workforce by offering workers eight months of pay in exchange for their resignations.
'True Value'
So far, though, investors' hopes that the Trump administration could boost Tesla with changes to electric vehicle tax subsidies and formalized standards for self-driving technology haven't materialized.
Musk has referred to full self-driving autonomy "as the true value" of Tesla, Robert W. Baird analysts Ben Kallo and Davis Sunderland wrote in a Feb. 4 note, adding they're now "more tepid" on the robotaxi business after the carmaker removed volume guidance when reporting fourth-quarter earnings.
While Musk's Tesla stake still makes up the largest portion of his $394.6 billion net worth, its recent decline - paired with record funding rounds for Musk's other companies, including xAI and SpaceX - mean that the carmaker is contributing a relatively smaller share to his fortune. Musk's 42% stake in SpaceX is currently worth $136 billion, or roughly the same amount as the value of his shares at market close.
He's also leading a consortium of investors making an unsolicited bid to buy OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, for almost $95 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff. OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman rejected the offer in a post on Musk's X social-media platform.