Elon Musk is no longer a trillionaire. On Tuesday, October 13, SpaceX shares fell more than 3% in a selloff in chip stocks, and Forbes put Musk’s net worth at $977.2 billion at 12:20 p.m. Eastern, down about 2.8%. He had won the $1 trillion mark back only about four days earlier.
What moved
The slide began in Asia, where chipmakers SK Hynix, Samsung and TSMC fell hardest. Nvidia, Broadcom and Intel slipped after the U.S. open. SpaceX fell with them. Tesla barely moved, down about half a percent around midday, and the major U.S. indexes were off by 0.1% to 0.3%. Trackers differ on the exact dollar loss, but every figure we saw is above $20 billion.
Why it flips so easily
Most of Musk’s wealth sits in two stocks. He owns about 48.4% of SpaceX, per regulatory filings, and about 11% of Tesla. SpaceX went public in June, and the stock has swung hard since. The $1 trillion line has not been steady ground for him. In our earlier story he was back over it on October 5. Since then, trackers have put him under it, over it again and, on Tuesday, under it once more.
What to watch
Tesla reports third-quarter results on October 21, the next big test for the second stock in his fortune. SpaceX shares will keep moving with the wider chip trade until the market settles.
Our take: a trillion dollars is a paper number. It changes with every SpaceX trade, and a 2.8% move was enough to take the title away. The headline will keep flipping, so the better question is how much of his wealth depends on two share prices. Our earlier report: Elon Musk Is a Trillionaire Again. Tesla’s date: Tesla Sets Its Q3 Earnings Report for October 21.
