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

Elon Musk has broken the world record for the “largest loss of personal fortune in history”.

The Tesla boss and Twitter chief executive saw a drop in net worth of approximately $182billion (£153billion) in just over a year, though some speculate the exact amount could be as high as $200billion (£164billion).

According to a blog post shared by Guinness World Records on Friday (January 6), while the tech mogul’s exact losses is “almost impossible to ascertain”, Musk’s figures “far surpass” the previous record of $58.6billion (£48billion), set by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000.

According to the post, which cited Forbes, the drop is “largely due to the poor performance of Tesla’s stock”.

It continued: “And don’t worry, even though Musk has lost more money than any human in history, he won’t be going hungry any time soon – he’s still the world’s second-richest person.”

In December, it was reported that the billionaire was no longer the world’s richest man, emerging soon after that he lost over half of his fortune over the last 13 months, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

“Don’t be too bothered by stock market craziness,” the CEO recently told staff at the car company, according to Reuters. “As we demonstrate continued excellent performance, the market will recognise that.”

Since Musk took over Twitter in October, the site has faced a slew of problems and controversies. The CEO immediately fired several top executives and half of its workforce, with users soon advised to archive their Twitter history after speculation the platform could collapse.

Last month, he also said he would step down from his role as CEO of the site as soon as he finds “someone foolish enough to take the job”, following Twitter users voting for him to resign in a poll.

Meanwhile, Musk recently expressed praise for Greta Thunberg following her viral exchanges with Andrew Tate.

He later took to Twitter to seemingly mock the anti-feminist far-right commentator, following his arrest in Romania on human trafficking charges.

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