In 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s wealth more than quintupled — at a time when a pandemic cut a swathe through people’s lives, left lakhs dead, and sent crores out of work. He even became the world’s richest person in January. However, it seems like a steep reversal is underway now. Musk has lost $27 billion since Monday, as Tesla's shares tumbled in the selloff of tech stocks.

The unravelling, however, began last month. On February 16, Tesla Inc shares slid 2.4 percent, erasing $4.6 billion from its CEO’s fortune and knocking him down from the top spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ranking.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who’d held the title for more than three years until January 2020, reclaimed his No. 1 position with a net worth of $191.2 billion.

Musk’s drop ended his almost six-week stint as the world’s richest person. After significant falls in his car company’s shares — close to $6.2 billion as of Wednesday — Musk slipped further to the third spot in the list of the Forbes billionaire rankings. He’s now almost $20 billion behind Bezos.

Tesla shares had soared 743 percent in 2020. Musk’s gains accelerated into the New Year. Musk’s fortune peaked in January at $210 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 wealthiest people.

Consistent quarterly profits, the election of President Joe Biden who has embraced clean technologies, and enthusiasm from retail investors fuelled the car company’s rise.

Musk’s fortune hasn’t been solely subject to the tech industry. His net worth has risen and slumped in accordance with the price of Bitcoin. Tesla had disclosed last month it had added $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency to its balance sheet. But two weeks later, Musk’s fortune took a $15 billion hit after he mused on Twitter that the prices of cryptocurrencies “do seem high”.

That said, BTC & ETH do seem high lol

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2021

For Bezos, too, it has been an eventful time. Amazon announced this month that Bezos would step down as the CEO of the e-commerce giant in the third quarter to focus on other projects. Bezos also owns a space exploration company Blue Origin, as well as the Washington Post. In the past 12 months, the shares of Amazon have climbed 53 per cent.

But it may not be long before Musk leapfrogs Bezos once again.

Musk’s SpaceX has been in talks to raise funds. SpaceX completed a $850 million funding round last week at a $74 billion valuation, about 60 per cent higher than its prior round, according to CNBC, which cited people familiar with the matter.

(Edited by : Jomy)

First Published:Mar 6, 2021 5:50 PM IST