Tesla tweet cost Elon Musk $50bn (but still the wealthiest person in the entire world).










After a Twitter poll on Saturday asking him if he should be selling 10% of his Tesla stock, Elon Musk suffered a loss of $50 billion in just two days.

The eye-watering fall, which equates to £37.2billion, was the biggest two-day decline ever recorded by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

His wealth tumbled to around £212billion after the electric car maker’s share price nosedived by 16 per cent at the start of the week.

Losses: Tesla Boss Elon Musk's wealth tumbled to around £212bn after the electric car maker’s share price nosedived by 16% at the start of the week

Losses: Tesla Boss Elon Musk’s wealth tumbled to around £212bn after the electric car maker’s share price nosedived by 16% at the start of the week

In early trading, the slump continued and Tesla briefly lost its place in the 1trillion-dollar company club. However, these losses recovered later in the day.

Musk was the richest person by far, even with the decrease in his wealth.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and Musk’s space-explorer rival, was the second-wealthiest with £152billion.

Musk took to Twitter over the weekend to ask his followers if he should sell a 10 per cent stake amid a row over how much tax billionaires pay.

Before the result came out, he said: ‘I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes.’

Some 58 per cent of respondents then voted ‘yes’, raising the prospect of a large share sale that sent the stock tumbling.

The entrepreneur said he asked the internet whether he should sell the shares because of claims that ‘unrealised capital gains are a form of tax avoidance’.

According to US law, Tesla’s shares are exempted from paying tax.

Last year he did not take a salary either – so was not taxed on salaried income at the electric car giant.

Musk has not yet announced a sale of the stock or confirmed that it will definitely go ahead – and the spotlight has now fallen on Tesla’s filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for any clues on the share-sale plans.

Companies have four days from the time they must report major events under SEC regulations. It later emerged that Musk’s brother Kimbal sold £73million of shares before the online vote.

At the time of the poll, 10 per cent of Musk’s shares was worth £15.5billion.

It is now worth around £13billion.

This father-of-seven, 50-year old man has become a Twitter controversial user. His tweets were criticized by US regulators.

He was previously charged by officials with manipulating stock markets through posts to social media claiming he was looking at taking over the company.

He is also a prominent advocate for cryptocurrencies via social media, often promoting bitcoin and dogecoin.

Musk, a Stanford University graduate in Physics, founded Paypal. Paypal was snapped up by Ebay for £1.2billion in 2002.

Although he did not create Tesla, he was one of the earliest investors in its creation and became Chairman in 2004.

He was first listed on the Forbes list of billionaires in 2012, and his fortune has since rocketed as Tesla’s value has mushroomed and his private space company, Space X, has grown.

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