Days after Elon Musk closed his Twitter deal, he sold $3.95 billion worth of Tesla shares because he needed the money to finalize the deal. Musk sold the shares despite receiving advice from market experts not to sell the company’s stocks.
Elon Musk’s net worth fell below $200 billion on Tuesday as investors dumped Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) shares, fearing the world’s most valuable electric-vehicle maker’s top executive and largest shareholder is more preoccupied with Twitter. Musk now has a net worth of $194.8 billion, according to Forbes, with a big share of that coming from his nearly 15% stake in Tesla, which has a market value of $622 billion.
The company has lost approximately half of its market value, and Elon’s net worth has dropped by $70 billion since his bid for Twitter in April. Investors initially fled Tesla on worries over the share sale by Musk, who has divested at least $15 billion worth of stock. He closed the $44-billion deal last month with $13 billion in loans and a $33.5 billion equity commitment.
Now Wall Street fears that Musk has stretched himself too thin at a time when the EV maker is ramping up production and faces rising competition. “It seems like Elon Musk is spending 100% of his time on Twitter, and, you know, it might need more capital,” said Jay Hatfield at Infrastructure Capital Management.
Since buying Twitter, Musk has made very few tweets about Tesla, a practice that has helped him gain traction on the platform. Instead, he has used Twitter to announce plans for the social media company, such as an $8 monthly subscription for blue tick verification.
The net worth of the world’s richest person, who also owns rocket company SpaceX, is roughly $40 billion more than the second-richest person, LVMH-owner Bernard Arnault. Tesla shares were down 2% at $193.7 in afternoon trading, falling for a third straight session.
