Elon Musk loses his trillionaire status after 12 days

• Elon Musk dropped below “trillionaire” status after a major market correction.
• Net worth fell by over $100B due to a sharp tech-sector sell-off.
• SpaceX stock plunged 30%, while Tesla also declined after a federal safety probe.
• He remains the world’s richest person despite reduced valuation.

Elon Musk’s historic tenure as the world’s first-ever trillionaire has come to an abrupt end.

A punishing multi-day market rout has erased roughly $118 billion from the eccentric billionaire's personal balance sheet, dragging him back into the ultra-billionaire ranks.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s net worth has adjusted to $957 billion.

The financial U-turn comes just over a week after Musk briefly breached the thirteen-figure milestone following the spectacular, long-awaited stock market debut of his aerospace titan, SpaceX.

The primary catalyst behind the massive paper wealth destruction was a sharp reversal in SpaceX’s newly public equity.

After reaching an astronomical valuation of nearly $3 trillion and hitting a peak intraday high of $225 on June 16, investor sentiment cooled drastically over the span of just three trading sessions.

By Tuesday, June 23, SpaceX shares had tumbled over 30%, closing at $156.

The steep sell-off wiped away more than $600 billion in corporate market value.

Financial analysts attribute the slide to a broader macroeconomic technology correction, compounded by internal corporate anxieties regarding SpaceX's future spending habits.

The aerospace giant recently signaled an aggressive, highly expensive pivot into artificial intelligence, unveiling blueprints to construct space-based data centers.

To fund the capital-intensive AI infrastructure expansion, SpaceX announced an upcoming corporate bond offering, a move that prompted some institutional investors to lock in profits, driving the stock back down toward its initial $150 debut price.

Because SpaceX functions as the absolute foundation of Musk's wealth -accounting for roughly 80% of his total assets via a commanding 38% ownership stake- the equity drop instantly dented his personal fortune.

Bloomberg estimates his specific SpaceX holding dropped to approximately $744 billion.

Tesla safety probe compounds bleeding

Compounding Musk's financial headaches, his electric vehicle flagship, Tesla, faced distinct downward pressure on Wall Street.

Tesla stock shed roughly 5% of its value this week following an announcement by U.S. federal automotive regulators.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirmed it has opened an official safety investigation into a recent fatal accident involving a Tesla Model 3.

Preliminary reports indicate the vehicle was actively operating its advanced driver-assistance system at the time of the collision, raising familiar liability and regulatory hurdles for Tesla's automated driving ambitions.

Musk’s remaining stake in the EV manufacturer is currently valued at roughly $158 billion.