Elon Musk has been behind some of the most influential ventures of recent years, such as Tesla, a pioneer in electric car manufacturing; SpaceX, a cost-effective and efficient system for transportation between Earth and space; and Neuralink, which specializes in the development of brain-computer interfaces. The tycoon has recently been at the center of controversy following his multibillion-dollar acquisition of Twitter and the changes he proposed to the social media platform’s business model. The backlash has been so intense that, by the end of 2022, Musk had become the person who has lost the most money in history.

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US$200,000 million. In the wake of the Twitter storm, Musk had already lost his spot as the world’s richest man a few weeks ago. But his controversial decisions, his heavy debt burden from the Twitter acquisition, and the plunge in Tesla’s stock price—which fell 65% in 2022, according to Bloomberg—have brought Musk’s net worth down to US$137,000 million, which is still a lot of money but far below the US$340,000 million he was worth in November 2021.