Elon Musk’s Net Worth Drops Half A Billion In Latest Tesla Reports


Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has lost more than $500 million worth of his shares value, shrinking his total to $13.4 billion, after the latest financial results of the electric car makers were released.

On 22 February, the electric car giant, Tesla, unveiled its fourth-quarter and full-year financial report, which, in fact, was better than anticipated, as reported by Forbes. The report showed both earnings and revenue estimation above the expected level. However, investors were not content, causing the company shares to fall by more than six percent.

The investors were concerned by the cash flow freeze Tesla could face as the car giant will increase production this year. In addition, the announcement of CFO Jason Wheeler to leave the company is also believed to have concerned the investors.

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Musk, who is the majority shareholder of Tesla, owning nearly 25 percent of the company shares, saw his stock dropped by 3.6 percent, or more than half a billion. This means the South Africa born inventor now has $13.4 billion worth, placing him in the 87th place in the list of rich-list of the world.

SpaceX’s New Announcement

However, not everything is going bad for Elon Musk as his other big company, SpaceX, rocked the world this week after it announced that the company will send two tourists to make a trip around the moon next year, according to CNN.

On Monday, Musk announced that the space tourists had put a significant deposit for the unprecedented voyage, and the visitors will soon go through fitness testing. They will begin training later in 2017 as the space exploration dream of general public is becoming reality in near future.

SpaceX confirmed the news in their official website.

“We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year.

“Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration.

“Additional information will be released about the flight teams, contingent upon their approval and confirmation of the health and fitness test results.”

In the announcement, the space giants thanked NASA, saying that without NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, their mission would be impossible.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket makes a successful launch with the SES-9 communications satellite.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket makes a successful launch with the SES-9 communications satellite. [Image by NASA via Getty Images]

The blog continued as follows.

“Designed from the beginning to carry humans, the Dragon spacecraft (the spaceship which will be used for the trip) already has a long flight heritage.

“These missions will build upon that heritage, extending it to deep space mission operations, an important milestone as we work towards our ultimate goal of transporting humans to Mars.”

The first mission will be unmanned and the second one with crew will be launched in the second quarter of 2018, according to Musk.

The billionaire inventor also added that there is some level of risk involved in the mission, and the explorers know about this notion.

“They’re certainly not naive, and we’ll do everything we can to minimize that risk, but it’s not zero.”

The moon tourists would make a loop around the Moon, skimming its surface and then going well beyond, said the CEO. The path used will be similar to NASA’s 1968 Apollo 8 mission going beyond the moon and back.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 is moved to the launch pad prior to the rocket's Thales Alenia Space launch attempt.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is moved to the launch pad prior to the rocket’s Thales Alenia Space launch attempt. [Image by NASA via Getty Images]

This will be the first time the U.S. will send astronauts to the Moon since the early 70s. The venture will see the spacecraft travel 480,000 to 640,000 km from the Earth, past the moon and return to the Earth.

SpaceX will join a growing list of companies sending commercial passengers to space if it manages to do so next year. And if the company manages this feat, SpaceX’s shares value may increase, which can make Elon Musk’s net worth cross $15 billion in 2018.

[Featured Image by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]

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