Yahoo Finance Richest person in world loses top spot after stock bloodbath
Elon Musk has fallen to the third spot on the billionaires list.
Elon Musk has lost the coveted position of the world’s richest person, after a brutal 12 months for the Tesla CEO, which has knocked around US$36 billion off his net worth.
That has allowed fellow tech multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos to assume the top spot. According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, which was updated this week, the Amazon founder is now worth a cool US$197 billion after adding roughly US$23 billion to his net worth.
Musk’s estimated net worth is just a tick below that at US$192 billion, but that doesn't even make him second place.
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Bernard Arnault, the French businessman who is founder, chairman and CEO of LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) is second with US$195 billion to his name.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn’t too far off with a net worth of US$176 billion, while Bill Gates is estimated to be worth around US$149 billion.
Zuckerberg's worth could drop after Facebook, Instagram and Messenger suffered worldwide outages this week. There are estimates that the outage lost $100 million in revenue, while Meta’s share price also fell by 1.5 per cent.
Tesla bloodbath
Musk’s ranking fell after Tesla’s share price dropped by a whopping 25 per cent. Shares were at a six-month peak of US$276 each back in September, but it’s been a bloodbath ever since.
Shares in the electric car company fell even harder on Monday (March 4) by 7 per cent and, at the time of writing, were sitting around $180 a pop - the lowest point they’ve been in 2024.
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Tesla admitted in a January earnings presentation that growth was expected to be “notably lower” than 2023 due to slowing growth in electric car sales as well as overseas competition. Chinese carmaker BYD beat Tesla in the final quarter of 2023 for sales, which was the first time Musk’s brand had been outsold.
Back in early 2023, Musk broke a Guinness World Record for the largest ever drop in personal worth.
His value slid by an eye-watering US$182 billion in 2022 due to issues with Tesla. This broke the previous record of US$58.6 billion, which was set by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000.
World's richest people
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, here is a list of the top 10 wealthiest people on the planet.
Jeff Bezos - $197 billion (up by $20.1 billion)
Bernard Arnault - $195 billion (up by $16.2 billion)
Elon Musk - $192 billion (down by $36.6 billion)
Mark Zuckerberg - $176 billion (up by $46 billion)
Bill Gates - $149 billion (up by $7.8 billion)
Steve Ballmer - $139 billion (up by $8.6 billion)
Warren Buffett - $132 billion (up by $12 billion)
Larry Ellison - $126 billion (up by $3.3 billion)
Larry Page - $122 billion (down by $4.5 billion)
Sergey Brin - $116 billion (down by $4.1 billion)
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