Tesla's $30 billion market cap drop spells trouble for Elon Musk's worth in 2024

Due to the $30 billion decline in Tesla's market capitalisation at Monday's close of business, billionaire Elon Musk's prospects for 2024 are not looking bright as his net worth continues to decline.

According to Forbes' real-time billionaire estimations, Elon Musk's valuation has plummeted by $3.9 billion to $194 billion as of Monday.

Elon Musk's electric vehicle manufacturer, Tesla, saw a devastating selloff in 2024 as its stock plummeted to its lowest level since May of the previous year. This loss was caused by Tesla's declining market share relative to other large technology stocks.

With a 5% decline in noon trade, Tesla was set up for its lowest closing since May 18, 2023. Tesla's market value dropped to $568.7 billion after this selloff, a startling $29.7 billion loss.

This decline caused Tesla to slide to the tenth spot—below Broadcom Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co.—on the list of the S&P 500's highest-valued businesses.

The German business daily Handelsblatt reports that SAP SE, a software corporation based in Germany that oversees a fleet of 29,000 cars, is no longer buying Teslas. Planning and storage are made difficult by Tesla's early delivery and frequent changes in list prices, according to the fleet manager.

The current setback for Tesla comes at the same time as interest in CEO Elon Musk's $56 billion compensation plan has increased, as it was just declared void by a Delaware court.

A new Wall Street Journal article that details Musk's alleged exertion of pressure on board members adds to the spotlight surrounding him.

According to regulatory records, Musk owns about 13% of Tesla as of April 2023.

He also owns around 304 million exercisable stock options that are a result of his 2018 pay.

According to Forbes, Musk's net worth dropped at the beginning of the year, and fashion entrepreneur Bernard Arnault replaced him as the richest person in the world. With an estimated net worth of $200 billion, Musk is currently the richest individual in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Tesla's stock has dropped sharply by 28.7% since 2024 began, coinciding with Musk's financial difficulties. Due to this decline, Tesla is currently the S&P 500's worst performance for the year. Compared to Tesla's record market worth of $1.24 trillion on January 3, 2022, the company's market capitalization of $568.7 billion is a significant decline.

Beyond just the firm, other electric vehicle (EV) makers have also been negatively impacted by Tesla's stock selloff, which has contributed to a broader industry slowdown.

This interrelated fall highlights the difficulties that the EV sector as a whole is currently facing in light of Tesla's prominent position and market dynamics.