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It has been a week of highs and lows for multibillionaire Elon Musk, whose net worth plummeted 10.83 per cent — or $29 billion — to $239.2bn overnight after shares in his electric-vehicle maker Tesla plunged 12 per cent in New York trading, wiping about $126bn off the company's value, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List.
Tesla investors are concerned Mr Musk may have to sell shares to complete his $44bn takeover of Twitter, which was approved by the social media company's board of directors this week, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the 50-year-old founder and chief executive of Tesla and rocket company SpaceX had a net worth of $268.2bn, the Forbes data showed.
However, it isn't the first time Mr Musk's net worth has taken a beating.
On November 14, Mr Musk lost a record $50bn after Tesla shares plunged two days in a row.
“It is the biggest two-day decline in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and the highest one-day fall after [Amazon founder] Jeff Bezos’s $36bn decline after his divorce from MacKenzie Scott in 2019,” Bloomberg reported at the time.
Just two weeks earlier, on October 28, 2021, Mr Musk became the first person on the planet to be worth more than $300bn, with a personal fortune of $302bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The drop in Mr Musk's current net worth narrows his lead over Mr Bezos — the world's second-richest person with a personal fortune of $165.2bn — to $74bn.
The Canadian-American businessman, who was born in South Africa and has seven children, owns about 17 per cent of Tesla, a February 2021 regulatory filing showed.
His stake in privately held SpaceX is valued at about $40.3bn, figures compiled by Bloomberg show.
Mr Musk made his first millions in the 1990s, when he sold his first company, Zip2, for more than $300 million. He then launched X.com, an online payment system that eventually became PayPal, which he sold to eBay for $1.5bn in 2002.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s stock price plunge comes amid a broader sell-off in equity markets around the world due to slower economic expansion and persistent inflation, according to Bloomberg.
This means Mr Musk wasn't the only billionaire to lose a sizeable slice of his personal fortune overnight, with the net worth of eight of the world's top 10 richest billionaires also falling a combined $51.7bn, according to the Forbes data.
However, there were two wealth-gainers in the top 10 list.
Self-made billionaire and Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, now the world's fifth-richest person, added $4.7bn, or 3.86 per cent, to his net worth of $126.6bn, while Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani climbed two places in the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List to become the seventh-richest person on the planet with a net worth of $105.6bn, up $4bn, or 3.94 per cent.
Top 10 richest people in the world
- Elon Musk: $239.2bn
- Jeff Bezos: $165.2bn
- Bernard Arnault: $157.4bn
- Bill Gates: $129.4bn
- Gautam Adani: $126.6bn
- Warren Buffett: $119.8bn
- Mukesh Ambani: $105.6bn
- Larry Ellison: $103.8bn
- Larry Page: $102bn
- Sergey Brin: $98.1bn
Source: Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List
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World's top 10 richest women in 2022 — in pictures
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks
Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
THE BIO
Favourite holiday destination: Whenever I have any free time I always go back to see my family in Caltra, Galway, it’s the only place I can properly relax.
Favourite film: The Way, starring Martin Sheen. It’s about the Camino de Santiago walk from France to Spain.
Personal motto: If something’s meant for you it won’t pass you by.
CHELSEA SQUAD
Arrizabalaga, Bettinelli, Rudiger, Christensen, Silva, Chalobah, Sarr, Azpilicueta, James, Kenedy, Alonso, Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Saul, Barkley, Ziyech, Pulisic, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Werner, Havertz, Lukaku.
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
