Elon Musk breaks Guinness World Record for ‘largest loss of personal fortune in history’

Elon Musk has broken the record for losing more money than any other human in history after holding the title of the world’s richest man for almost a year.

The Tesla and Twitter chief executive’s wealth diminished so greatly that the Guinness World Records, in a blog post on Friday, recognised him for having the “largest loss of personal fortune in history”.

He officially broke the record by losing approximately $182bn since November 2021, it said in a press release, citing Forbes.

The release, however, said his losses could be actually as high as $200bn and added that the exact figure is almost impossible to ascertain.

Before Mr Musk, the record for the highest loss in personal wealth was held by Softbank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son in 2000. Mr Son’s loss at the time was much lower, at $58.6bn.

Mr Musk is the chief executive and the largest shareholder in Tesla, with a stake of 14 per cent. He completed a tumultuous $44bn takeover of Twitter in October.

His net worth peaked in November 2021, reaching $340bn, according to Bloomberg.

Mr Musk’s fortunes were dented after the Twitter takeover coupled with his “polarising behaviour on the platform” that sparked the biggest Tesla stock sell-off, Guinness World Records said.

Tesla shares suffered a free fall, dropping 65 per cent in 2022, causing major losses to his wealth.

“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,” said the blog post.

Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of luxury goods group LVMH, has overtaken Mr Musk to become the world’s richest man, as per estimates.