Tesla chief Elon Musk’s wealth has slipped below US$300 billion (S$406 billion) for the first time since November 2024 as the indiscriminate fallout from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs punishes even those closest to him.
Mr Musk lost US$4.4 billion on April 7 after Tesla stock extended losses, taking his total fortune to US$297.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
That followed a US$31 billion hit across April 3 and 4. So far in 2025, Mr Musk has lost US$134.7 billion.
Mr Musk was the sixth-biggest loser on Bloomberg’s list of the world’s 500 richest people on April 7. Overall, the index fell US$271 billion – its third-worst day ever.
The slump in Mr Musk’s fortune is a continuation of a stunning reversal.
Tesla shares surged after Mr Trump’s election, propelling Mr Musk’s fortune to record highs.
Since then, his role as a high-profile Trump adviser has made Tesla a target for protests and vandalism at home and abroad.
The billionaire CEO’s polarising behaviour and social media activity are alienating would-be buyers and leading owners of Tesla cars to distance themselves from his politics and the company’s damaged brand.
The company’s shares have fallen more than 50 per cent since the record high in mid-December 2024.
Over the weekend, Mr Musk said he hopes for a “zero-tariff” system between the US and Europe that would effectively create “a free-trade zone”.
His brother, Mr Kimbal Musk, on April 7 criticised the tariffs as a “structural, permanent tax on the American consumer”.
“Even if he is successful in bringing jobs on shore through the tariff tax, prices will remain high and the tax on consumption will remain in the form of higher prices because we are simply not as good at making all things,” Mr Kimbal Musk, a Tesla board member, said in a post on X. BLOOMBERG
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MDDI (P) 048/10/2024. Published by SPH Media Limited, Co. Regn. No. 202120748H. Copyright © 2025 SPH Media Limited. All rights reserved.
