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Elon Musk is referred to as “the world’s richest man” so frequently that you might think he trademarked the phrase. But the South Africa-born billionaire also holds another distinction: the largest loss ever of a personal fortune. From late 2021 to early 2023, Musk’s net worth fell from $320 billion to $138 billion, netting a loss of $182 billion.
Key Takeaways
- According to Guinness World Records, between 2021 and 2023 Elon Musk suffered the greatest loss of a personal fortune in history.
- His loss, which was on paper and due primarily to a drop in Tesla’s share price, amounted to nearly $200 billion.
- Since that time Musk has recouped his losses and is believed to be the world’s richest man by a considerable margin.
How Much Musk Lost
The dubious honor of “largest loss” was conferred by Guinness World Records, based on a 2023 report by Forbes. It said that Musk’s net worth fell from $320 billion in 2021 to $138 billion in early January 2023, a net loss of $182 billion. The major reason for the plunge was a decline in share prices of the electric automaker Tesla, probably the best known of Musk’s portfolio of companies.
The nearly $200 billion slide put Musk far ahead of—or behind, depending on how you look at it—the prior record holder. “Although the exact figure is almost impossible to ascertain, Musk’s total losses far surpass the previous record of $58.6 billion, set by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000,” Guinness World Records said in a Jan. 6, 2023 press release. Son is the founder and CEO of SoftBank Group.
At the same time, the loss cost Musk another record, that of world’s richest man—at least temporarily. “Musk’s misfortunes also saw him lose his status as the world’s richest person to Bernard Arnault (France), founder of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), who has an estimated net worth of $190 billion,” the same press release reported.
How Much Elon Musk Is Worth Today
Musk now appears to be a double recordholder. He may still hold the prize for the largest loss, and he seems to have regained his spot as the world’s richest man.
Forbes, which has established itself as a leading authority on these matters, ranks the world’s billionaires in what it calls “real-time,” adjusting the figures on a daily basis. On March 5, 2025, for example, it put Musk’s wealth at $351.6 billion. Runner-up was Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg at $226.7 billion. Rounding out the top five were Amazon’s Jeff Bezos at $223.5 billion, Oracle’s Larry Ellison at $199.2 billion, and the aforementioned Bernard Arnault and his family at $180.6 billion.
By the time you read this, those numbers will have changed, and the order may have shifted slightly. But either Musk will have to lose a lot of money or some other billionaire will have to gain a lot (or some combination of the two) to topple him from first place.
The Bottom Line
Elon Musk holds the prize for “largest loss of personal fortune,” according to Guinness World Records, and he may be in no danger of having to give it back anytime soon. However, his fortunes have improved considerably in the years since, making him the world’s richest individual that we know of—and by far.
