On March 4th, the world's wealthiest person once again changed ownership, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos surpassing Tesla CEO Musk to return to the top of the world's richest list.
Bezos once again became the world's richest man thanks to the recent sharp drop in Tesla's stock price. On the closing day of March 4th, Tesla's stock price plummeted by 7%. Since the beginning of this year, the company's stock price has fallen by more than 24%. Musk's personal wealth has also significantly shrunk.
The latest wealth list data shows that Bezos currently has a net asset of $200 billion, followed closely by Musk with a net asset of $1980 billion. In the past year, Musk lost over $31 billion in wealth, while Bezos's wealth increased by $23 billion.
Last month, Bezos significantly reduced his holdings in Amazon's stock and quickly sold 50 million shares within 9 trading days, cashing out nearly $8.5 billion, attracting market attention.
The top three global billionaire titles are currently concentrated in Bezos, Musk, and Bernard Arnault, CEO of French luxury goods giant LVMH. Last May, Musk defeated Arnold to become the world's richest man.
According to the latest annual report from Oxfam, the net assets of the world's five wealthiest individuals have surged by 114% since 2020, reaching $869 billion.
Musk's recent wealth decline is closely related to the decline in Tesla's stock price. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on March 4th, Tesla's factory shipments in China reached a 14 month low in February, with only about 60000 electric vehicles delivered last month, the lowest level since December 2022, with a year-on-year decrease of 19%. This news directly led to a sharp drop in Tesla's stock price on Monday.
The recent decline in Tesla's stock price is also related to the fierce electric vehicle price war. Last week, Tesla launched a new round of incentive measures worth up to 34600 yuan to stimulate Chinese electric vehicle consumers to make purchases.
And Musk himself has also been embroiled in lawsuits recently. A legal document last week showed that he filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, and a few days later, he himself was also sued by a former Twitter executive.
In the latest lawsuit against Musk and his newly established X company, executives including former Twitter CEO Park Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett have claimed that they have been owed $128 million in unpaid severance pay.
These executives claimed that Musk personally retaliated against them after acquiring Twitter. They also stated that Musk "used his wealth and power to brutally treat anyone who disagreed with him.". Musk has not yet publicly responded to this lawsuit.
Previously, X Company had already faced two proposed class action lawsuits, claiming that the company owed at least $500 million in severance pay to ordinary employees who were fired after Musk's acquisition. X company has previously been sued for failing to pay fees to its former public relations company, landlord, supplier, and consultant.