Elon Musk’s Net Worth Slumped by $12.6B After SpaceX Starship Explodes

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WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 09: Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX speaks at the 2020 Satellite Conference and Exhibition March 9, 2020 in Washington, DC. Musk answered a range of questions relating to SpaceX projects during his appearance at the conference.

Elon Musk, once the wealthiest man in the world, is facing another huge drop in net worth amid the recent SpaceX Starship explosion and the massive slump in the share price of Tesla.

But despite the massive drop in his multi-billion wealth, Musk remains the second richest man. The Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault are taking the top spot.

Elon Musk Net Worth Dropped by Roughly $13 Billion

Musk is the Chief Executive Officer of the two tech behemoths, Tesla and SpaceX. He now also owns the giant social network Twitter, which started removing legacy blue checkmarks. Prominent figures on the platform, such as Pope Francis and Beyonce, have already lost their verification badge after refusing to pay.

According to Business Insider, all these giant firms which Musk owns are facing a tough week. The setback collectively slashes around $13 billion from his net worth, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates. The latest slump in his wealth is by far the most significant decline for 2023. And as such, his net worth is now down to $163.9 billion.

The billionaire tech entrepreneur used to be the wealthiest man in the world. However, the big boss of Louis Vuitton overtook him in December 2022, pushing him to the second spot, which he continues to cling to despite the turbulent week for his company.

Business Insider reveals that his net worth of Musk is primarily composed of his stake in his tech companies. He owns a majority stake in Twitter, at roughly 79%. For Tesla, he keeps a 13% stake. He also holds a 42% stake in the space exploration firm SpaceX.

The slump in the net worth of the Tesla boss comes amid the sharp decline in the share price of his all-electric automaker. On Thursday, the share price of the EV maker was down by a steep 9.8%.

Apart from the massive drop in the share price of the giant automaker, the Starship rocket of SpaceX exploded on Thursday.

(Photo : CARINA JOHANSEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk smiles as he addresses guests at the Offshore Northern Seas 2022 (ONS) meeting in Stavanger, Norway on August 29, 2022. - The meeting, held in Stavanger from August 29 to September 1, 2022, presents the latest developments in Norway and internationally related to the energy, oil and gas sector.

SpaceX Starship Explosion

As per CBS News, SpaceX engineer, John Insprucker, confirmed the explosion during the live stream of its recent launch. He explains that the "Starship just experienced what we call a rapid unscheduled disassembly, or a RUB, during ascent."

Meanwhile, the SpaceX founder, Musk, took to Twitter to congratulate the team for their recent test launch. He wrote, "Congrats SpaceX team, on an exciting test launch of Starship!" He added that they "learned a lot for [the] next test launch in a few months."

BBC News notes that the Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket the Musk-founder space firm, SpaceX, has ever built. The uncrewed spacecraft launched from the facilities of the tech behemoth at Boca Chica, Texas.