At the moment, no one on the earth owns a fortune exceeding $200 billion. Elon Musk, the sole billionaire who remained above that threshold entering this week, saw his fortune fall from $13.3 billion to $198.6 billion on Wednesday.
Tesla Inc.’s shares plummeted for the fourth consecutive day to their lowest level since September, amidst a universal stock market sell-off.
Tesla’s 50-year-old Co-founder remains the world’s wealthiest person. Nonetheless, Musk’s fortune has been wiped out by $71.7 billion this year, more than the combined fortunes of the next three wealthiest persons, as markets cope with regional tensions surrounding Ukraine and more aggressive central banks.
Musk’s fortune reached a record high of $340.4 billion on Nov. 4, when Tesla shares hit a record high.
A few days later, he questioned his Twitter followers whether he should sell a portion of his ownership, precipitating a dramatic collapse in the company’s value that wiped out $35 billion of his net worth in a single day – a near-record amount. He eventually sold more than $16 billion worth of stock and donated $5.7 billion worth of shares to charity.
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Jeff Bezos, the creator of Amazon.com Inc., is the only other individual whose wealth has ever topped the $200 billion thresholds, having done it for the first time in April. His fortune bounced around that level for most of last year before finally falling below it in December.