Brenna Cooper
Elon Musk may be riding the waves of Donald Trump's presidency by flailing chainsaws around on stage and terrorising government employees via email, but that doesn't mean all is fine and dandy for the tech billionaire.
In fact, the 53-year-old has recently seen his net worth plummet by $52 billion (£41 billion) since the start of 2025, due to a loss of market confidence in his businesses.
To you and I, £41 billion sounds like an inconceivable amount of money, but things move very differently in the world of the uber-rich and imaginary zeros of vale being added on or taken away from a number is just part of the finance game.
So, why has Elon Musk's net worth taken a nosedive?
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Why the entrepreneur is busy spamming his follower's X timelines with memes and verbal diarrhoea, Tesla sales have been slumping worldwide.
According to a report from CNN Business, shares in the electric vehicle company have decreased around 20% over the past month, while European sales have declined by 45% in the same period. This is a stark contrast to last November's spike as investors raced to cash on his support for newly elected Donald Trump.
The company's market value has also dropped below the $1 trillion mark for the first time since the US Presidential election. His personal net worth would later peak at an all-time high of $486.4 billion (£386 billion) on 17 December (per Bloomberg).
NBC News suggests that a decline in Tesla popularity could be down to Musk's polarising personal beliefs, which have seen the SpaceX founder making headlines nearly everyday since Trump was inaugurated into the White House.
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DOGE department debacles, such as recently at the centre of a 'productivity email' debacle, are potentially at fault for his decline in personal popularity.
A possible further decline in Tesla shares was suggested by The Future Fund's Gary Black, however, he doesn't believe this will have long-term damage for the company.
"Tesla’s superior products, new more affordable vehicle, which I believe will be a new form factor and expand Tesla’s total addressable market, and the promise of unsupervised autonomy will sell more Teslas," Black wrote on X.
But before any of us reach into our back pockets and start a whip round for Musk, his status as the world's richest man isn't currently under threat from the massive losses.
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According to Forbes, Musk's real-time net worth is $353.2 billion (£280.3 billion) at the time of writing, which still means he is still $100 billion ahead of competitors Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg — despite losing around $5 billion (£3.9 billion) in just the last day.