10 ms·

Elon Musk breaks world record for largest loss of personal fortune in history

60 points by ozten 3y ago

mannyv 3y ago
Does he beat Bezos' 50% loss after his divorce?
- arcastroe 3y ago
  Bezos kept more than 75% after his divorce.
kdwikzncba 3y ago
Fortunately he's doing it all for free speech.
avmich 3y ago
That's the price of not one, but several houses in Bay Area! Crazy!
foverzar 3y ago
It's not real money anyway, isn't it? A vague assessment of a total combined price of each individual share the person has control of.
crmd 3y ago
To be clear, that any one human is in a position to “win or lose” this much money on a couple of business bets is a statement on out-of-control accelerating wealth inequality + inflation of stock markets more than on Elon’s prowess or incompetence as an investor.
- elkos 3y ago
  Many celebrated prowess based solely on the fact of the perceived valuation of wealth.
ozten 3y ago
I expected the article to mention's Zuckerberg's 71B drop in 2022[1] also reported to be as much as over 100B[2]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32932567 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32932567 [2] https://fortune.com/2022/10/31/what-is-mark-zuckerberg-net-worth-losses-100-billion-metaverse-earnings/ https://fortune.com/2022/10/31/what-is-mark-zuckerberg-net-w...
Dig1t 3y ago
It’s clear that old school media _really_ does not like Musk or X and are doing anything they can to make him/them look bad. But also, the more articles you write about “rocket man bad”, doesn’t it become more and more obvious what your bias is? It’s just a little on the nose at this point. No wonder trust in old school media is at an all time low.
- seadan83 3y ago
  > It’s clear that old school media _really_ does not like Musk or X and are doing anything they can to make him/them look bad. I strongly suspect confirmation bias is at play. How about this article? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/18/elon-musk-to-file-thermonuclear-lawsuit-as-advertisers-desert-x https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/18/elon-musk... That certainly is not a "rocket man" is bad article. It provides context and states what why Musk would be filing a lawsuit. How about this article? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/05/elon-musk-unveils-grok-an-ai-chatbot-with-a-rebellious-streak https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/05/elon-musk... Seems very expository to me, with lots of quotes from Musk and team. How about this article? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/01/elon-musk-calls-ai-one-of-the-biggest-threats-to-humanity-at-summit https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/01/elon-musk... Which leads with the sentence: "Elon Musk, the world’s richest man; Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind; and King Charles among those weighing in" How about this article? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/12/elon-musk-biography-eight-things-learned https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/12/elon-musk... I very much could see all 8 of those points being conveyed in a much starker light, or potentially selecting different points that were all abjectly negative - rather than the relatively expository nature of the article.
- barrysteve 3y ago
  Every single media source is pumping out negativity. All sectors and all industries are constantly reported to be failing, a bad future ahead and wildly disconnected from reality. The media has very few positive news stories and they are channelled along specific activities in life. I can't imagine anybody valuing media now. Media is fundamentally worth less to read and participate in, than ever before. Old school media now, is nothing like old school media then. Online media outside of a few places, is heavily manipulated and poisoined.
rurban 3y ago
That would still be Mansa Musa, the richest man ever, losing around 400b
- potatopatch 3y ago
  You mean in the sense that all wealth is lost in death or is there a specific story of him losing everything?
  - rurban 3y ago
    Sure, read about his hajj, where he ended bankrupt after giving away all his gold. https://aboutislam.net/family-life/culture/historic-hajj-mansa-musa-king-mali/ https://aboutislam.net/family-life/culture/historic-hajj-man...
- wredcoll 3y ago
  If only there was any actual evidence of him existing
  - windthrown 3y ago
    Do you just mean existing as rich as the stories depict? My understanding is that there is ample evidence Mansa Musa existed and ruled Mali: it's just the measure of his wealth that is questionable.
aa1234556 3y ago
[dead]
cush 3y ago
This article is from almost a year ago. It doesn’t factor in the recent decline in Twitter valuation. That said, measuring net worth by summing together illiquid, unrealized shares in a highly volatile, overvalued tech company during a record high inflation event would always yield these kinds of headlines. It says nothing about the business or anything material really.
- Zigurd 3y ago
  Rich lists are self-reported so even the bogusness of illiquid founder's shares in sweetheart deals doesn't get any journalists' hands dirty. Anything remotely plausible counts.
volkk 3y ago
i'll never understand the point of information like this aside from the desire to paint someone in a bad light because of some narrative. i even made sure to go to the science section of theguardian and searched for spacex, because i thought, maybe there are different sections that focus on more optimistic takes of what Elon is doing, but of course all of the headlines are extremely negative "Rows and rockets blow up as Elon Musk’s firms endure turbulent weekend" "SpaceX’s Starship reaches space for first time but explodes moments later" "SpaceX delays second test flight of world’s largest rocket until weekend" this stuff is so cringe and so obviously biased/tainted
- fortyseven 3y ago
  I'm sure Mr. Musk will notice your loyalty and reward you for it.
  - southernplaces7 3y ago
    You can freely be disgusted by Musk himself in all sorts of fully justified ways, and still recognize these kinds of "news" pieces as the tabloid-like, simplistic, sensationalist garbage they are.
  - volkk 3y ago
    Great lemming response. I am apathetic towards Elon, fyi. This kind of sentiment is exactly why this biased low value journalism continues to exist
- thegrim33 3y ago
  Yes, the desire to paint them in a bad light is the entire point of the article. It's political/social narrative manipulation, not journalism.
- dzhiurgis 3y ago
  The somewhat object outlet I follow was recently painted as government-funded media so I kinda understand the resentment. Private outlets are far worse tho.
- 3y ago

60 points by ozten 3y ago

mannyv 3y ago

Does he beat Bezos' 50% loss after his divorce?

arcastroe 3y ago
Bezos kept more than 75% after his divorce.

kdwikzncba 3y ago

Fortunately he's doing it all for free speech.

avmich 3y ago

That's the price of not one, but several houses in Bay Area! Crazy!

foverzar 3y ago

It's not real money anyway, isn't it? A vague assessment of a total combined price of each individual share the person has control of.

crmd 3y ago

To be clear, that any one human is in a position to “win or lose” this much money on a couple of business bets is a statement on out-of-control accelerating wealth inequality + inflation of stock markets more than on Elon’s prowess or incompetence as an investor.

elkos 3y ago
Many celebrated prowess based solely on the fact of the perceived valuation of wealth.

ozten 3y ago

I expected the article to mention's Zuckerberg's 71B drop in 2022[1] also reported to be as much as over 100B[2]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32932567 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32932567 [2] https://fortune.com/2022/10/31/what-is-mark-zuckerberg-net-worth-losses-100-billion-metaverse-earnings/ https://fortune.com/2022/10/31/what-is-mark-zuckerberg-net-w...

Dig1t 3y ago

It’s clear that old school media _really_ does not like Musk or X and are doing anything they can to make him/them look bad. But also, the more articles you write about “rocket man bad”, doesn’t it become more and more obvious what your bias is? It’s just a little on the nose at this point. No wonder trust in old school media is at an all time low.

seadan83 3y ago
> It’s clear that old school media _really_ does not like Musk or X and are doing anything they can to make him/them look bad. I strongly suspect confirmation bias is at play. How about this article? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/18/elon-musk-to-file-thermonuclear-lawsuit-as-advertisers-desert-x https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/18/elon-musk... That certainly is not a "rocket man" is bad article. It provides context and states what why Musk would be filing a lawsuit. How about this article? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/05/elon-musk-unveils-grok-an-ai-chatbot-with-a-rebellious-streak https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/05/elon-musk... Seems very expository to me, with lots of quotes from Musk and team. How about this article? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/01/elon-musk-calls-ai-one-of-the-biggest-threats-to-humanity-at-summit https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/01/elon-musk... Which leads with the sentence: "Elon Musk, the world’s richest man; Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind; and King Charles among those weighing in" How about this article? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/12/elon-musk-biography-eight-things-learned https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/12/elon-musk... I very much could see all 8 of those points being conveyed in a much starker light, or potentially selecting different points that were all abjectly negative - rather than the relatively expository nature of the article.
barrysteve 3y ago
Every single media source is pumping out negativity. All sectors and all industries are constantly reported to be failing, a bad future ahead and wildly disconnected from reality. The media has very few positive news stories and they are channelled along specific activities in life. I can't imagine anybody valuing media now. Media is fundamentally worth less to read and participate in, than ever before. Old school media now, is nothing like old school media then. Online media outside of a few places, is heavily manipulated and poisoined.

rurban 3y ago

That would still be Mansa Musa, the richest man ever, losing around 400b

potatopatch 3y ago
You mean in the sense that all wealth is lost in death or is there a specific story of him losing everything?
- rurban 3y ago
  Sure, read about his hajj, where he ended bankrupt after giving away all his gold. https://aboutislam.net/family-life/culture/historic-hajj-mansa-musa-king-mali/ https://aboutislam.net/family-life/culture/historic-hajj-man...
wredcoll 3y ago
If only there was any actual evidence of him existing
- windthrown 3y ago
  Do you just mean existing as rich as the stories depict? My understanding is that there is ample evidence Mansa Musa existed and ruled Mali: it's just the measure of his wealth that is questionable.

aa1234556 3y ago

[dead]

cush 3y ago

This article is from almost a year ago. It doesn’t factor in the recent decline in Twitter valuation. That said, measuring net worth by summing together illiquid, unrealized shares in a highly volatile, overvalued tech company during a record high inflation event would always yield these kinds of headlines. It says nothing about the business or anything material really.

Zigurd 3y ago
Rich lists are self-reported so even the bogusness of illiquid founder's shares in sweetheart deals doesn't get any journalists' hands dirty. Anything remotely plausible counts.

volkk 3y ago

i'll never understand the point of information like this aside from the desire to paint someone in a bad light because of some narrative. i even made sure to go to the science section of theguardian and searched for spacex, because i thought, maybe there are different sections that focus on more optimistic takes of what Elon is doing, but of course all of the headlines are extremely negative "Rows and rockets blow up as Elon Musk’s firms endure turbulent weekend" "SpaceX’s Starship reaches space for first time but explodes moments later" "SpaceX delays second test flight of world’s largest rocket until weekend" this stuff is so cringe and so obviously biased/tainted

fortyseven 3y ago
I'm sure Mr. Musk will notice your loyalty and reward you for it.
- southernplaces7 3y ago
  You can freely be disgusted by Musk himself in all sorts of fully justified ways, and still recognize these kinds of "news" pieces as the tabloid-like, simplistic, sensationalist garbage they are.
- volkk 3y ago
  Great lemming response. I am apathetic towards Elon, fyi. This kind of sentiment is exactly why this biased low value journalism continues to exist
thegrim33 3y ago
Yes, the desire to paint them in a bad light is the entire point of the article. It's political/social narrative manipulation, not journalism.
dzhiurgis 3y ago
The somewhat object outlet I follow was recently painted as government-funded media so I kinda understand the resentment. Private outlets are far worse tho.
3y ago