Elon Musk’s Net Worth Plummets by $13 Billion in One Day, Prompting Anger

Elon Musk’s fortune dropped dramatically by $13 billion in just 24 hours after the businessman suffered a series of terrible business mistakes.

On the same day that the SpaceX founder’s groundbreaking rocket launch ended in a catastrophic disaster, his electric car company, Tesla, reported disappointing first-quarter results, with shares down 9.75 percent and profits down more than 20 percent.

Musk’s failure to launch also extended to his recent takeover of Twitter, where he sparked a backlash after finally following through on his threat to remove “old” verified blue ticks.

The drop in the billionaire’s net worth has been hit hardest by Tesla’s poor returns, and its $13 billion drop was its biggest loss this year so far.

Despite his disastrous day, Musk still has a net worth totaling $164 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaire Index. His wealth places him second on the list of the world’s richest people, after French luxury brand mogul Bernard Arnault.

According to an internal email seen by the outlet, Musk told SpaceX employees that he’s optimistic about the project, despite his high-profile rocket launch blazing.

The largest rocket ever, the 395-foot-tall behemoth consisted of the Super Heavy booster and Starship.

But just four minutes after liftoff at 9:33 a.m. ET, the rocket exploded dramatically, abruptly ending its first orbital launch.

Space X claimed that it intentionally activated the flight termination system to eliminate the rocket after the Super Heavy failed to separate, which began causing an uncontrollable death spin before it exploded.

Despite the less-than-ideal optics of the rocket’s explosion as thousands of people watched from the ground in South Texas, NASA, Musk and SpaceX hailed the launch as a success after achieving their main goal of sending the spacecraft off the launch pad.

Thousands of people watched the iconic Musk rocket launch as they watched the giant 395-foot rocket lift off from the launch pad.

The SpaceX launch ended in disaster when the Starship spacecraft exploded in a fireball after just four minutes

But Musk will have a hard time claiming success in his latest quarterly report on Tesla, after shares of the electric car giant fell nearly 10 percent on Thursday.

This decline came just one day after the company announced a decline of more than 20 percent in net income, compared to the same quarter of last year.

Musk also alarmed analysts when discussing weak filings, which saw the company report net income of $2.51 billion for the first quarter of 2023, down 24 percent from a year earlier.

“We’ve taken the view that pushing for higher volumes and a larger fleet is the right choice here, in return for lower volume and higher margin,” the billionaire said on an earnings call after the report was released.

Musk also admitted that it was “difficult to quantify the margin” before a decline in his bottom line became ominous.

Musk’s net worth dropped dramatically after Tesla reported double first-quarter revenue on Thursday

While most of his net worth decline is related to his gigantic stake in Tesla, Musk has faced more setbacks in his recent unpopular decision with Twitter.

Since acquiring the company a year ago, the billionaire has threatened to remove blue tick verification.

And after receiving a muted reaction to the “Twitter Blue” rollout, Musk finally followed through Thursday and rid the site of its “old” hashtags.

The decision was widely criticized online, particularly by those who lost their label, as star stars including Oprah Winfrey, Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian now find themselves without any verification.