Elon Musk has lost $53.9 billion in wealth within a week, bringing his estimated net worth down to $849.7 billion, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List.
The decline represents a 5.97% drop from his estimated fortune of $903.6 billion recorded a week earlier, although Musk remains the world’s richest person by a significant margin. His current wealth is approximately $471.6 billion higher than that of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who ranks second with an estimated net worth of $378.1 billion. Google co-founder Larry Page follows in third place with $236.9 billion, while Sergey Brin ranks fourth with $218.1 billion. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg completes the top five with $209.7 billion.
Musk’s latest loss comes amid changing valuations across the technology sector, particularly in artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and space exploration. His fortune is closely tied to his ownership stakes in Tesla, SpaceX and other business ventures, making his net worth sensitive to movements in the value of these companies.
The decline follows a period of significant gains. On October 21, Musk added $88 billion to his fortune in a single day, pushing his estimated net worth above $1 trillion to approximately $1.013 trillion. The increase was attributed to renewed investor confidence in SpaceX’s financial performance and expectations surrounding Tesla’s quarterly earnings announcement.
Musk’s fortune has experienced several sharp movements this year. In July, he reportedly lost $45.3 billion following a decline in SpaceX shares after a setback involving the company’s Starship launch programme. The loss pushed his net worth below $800 billion, following an earlier peak of approximately $1.45 trillion in June.
His wealth subsequently recovered in August, gaining $30.7 billion within 24 hours to reach $894.9 billion as valuations across his major business holdings improved.
In June, Musk also briefly became the world’s first trillionaire following SpaceX’s Nasdaq debut, with his fortune reportedly reaching approximately $1.1 trillion after the company’s shares opened above their initial public offering price. However, by June 24, his net worth had fallen by $118 billion to $957 billion, largely following an adjustment in the valuation of unvested Tesla shares linked to his compensation package.
The latest decline underscores the volatility of Musk’s fortune, which continues to move alongside the market valuations and financial performance of his businesses.
