ELON MUSK LOSES $51BN AS TESLA, SPACEX SHARES SLIDE

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By: Balogun Ibrahim

Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk saw his personal fortune shrink by more than $51 billion on Tuesday after sharp declines in the share prices of both companies, according to Forbes.

The publication reported that SpaceX shares fell by more than six per cent to just above $150 by Tuesday afternoon, only slightly above the company’s debut trading price.

Tesla shares also dropped by nearly four per cent during the same trading session.

According to Forbes, the combined decline in the two stocks erased approximately $51.4 billion from Musk’s net worth, reducing his fortune to about $948 billion.

The report noted that Musk owns 4.8 billion SpaceX shares, in addition to 350 million stock options in the aerospace company, as well as roughly 700 million shares in Tesla.

Despite the selloff, some Wall Street analysts remain optimistic about SpaceX’s long-term growth prospects, with one analyst suggesting the company could have a greater impact than any other firm they have previously covered.

SpaceX made its highly anticipated stock market debut last month, briefly pushing Musk’s wealth to a record $1.45 trillion and making him the world’s first trillionaire.

However, the stock has experienced significant volatility since listing, with repeated swings wiping hundreds of billions of dollars from Musk’s fortune. One of the sharpest declines came in late June following SpaceX’s $60 billion all-stock acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor, a deal some analysts argued would dilute shareholder value.

Despite the latest losses, Musk remains the world’s richest person by a considerable margin, ahead of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.