Elon Musk’s wealth dips below $300 billion amid ongoing tariff fallout

AUSTIN, TEXAS: Tesla Inc. chief Elon Musk’s wealth has slipped below $300 for the first time since November as the indiscriminate fallout from President Donald Trump’s tariffs punishes even those closest to him.

Musk lost $4.4 billion on Monday after Tesla stock extended losses, taking his total fortune to $297.8 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That followed a $3 billion hit across Thursday and Friday last week. So far this year, Musk has lost $134.7 billion.

Musk was the sixth biggest loser on Bloomberg’s list of the world’s 500 richest people on Monday. Overall, the index fell $271 billion – its third – worst day ever.

The slump in Musk’s fortune is a continuation of stunning reversal. Tesla shares surged after Trump’s election, propelling Musk’s fortune to record high. 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 percent since the record high in mid-December.

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Over the weekend, Musk he said he hopes for a ‘zero-tariff’ system between US and Europe that would effectively create a ‘free-trade zone’. His brother, Kimbal, on Monday criticized 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 the form of higher prices because we are simply not as good at making all things,” Kimbal Musk, a Tesla board member, said in a post on X.