TBF a lot of that was overvalued Tesla stock that has since fallen by 70%. It's a common misconception that if you have a net worth of $200B you can buy $200B

TBF a lot of that was overvalued Tesla stock that has since fallen by 70%. It's a common misconception that if you have a net worth of $200B you can buy $200B worth of stuff - it's usually more like "You have 1B shares of a company valued at $200/share". If you went to actually sell those shares, it would tank the price, and you'd end up with far less cash. The way to think about net worth once you get past the upper-middle-class wage-laborer level is "You have assets that the market currently values at $XB, and you want to trade for other assets valued at $XB, and the true value of the assets you currently hold is $YB < $XB [otherwise you'd hold onto them], and you hope that the true value of the assets you're buying is $ZB > $XB." Under this framework, though, it's possible to come out ahead even if $ZB < $XB, as long as $ZB > $YB. It could be he bought Twitter at an inflated price, but he bought it with Tesla shares and leverage that was even more inflated, and so it still works out.