Tesla Plunge Knocks $18.6 Billion Off Elon Musk’s Fortune
Tesla’s sharp slide wiped $18.6 billion from Elon Musk’s fortune after an earnings report that missed profit expectations. Analysts are now pressing the…
NEW YORK — Elon Musk net worth fell by $18.6 billion after Tesla shares plunged 14.1% on Thursday, following an earnings report that disappointed Wall Street and reignited questions about the company’s next big growth drivers.
The drop cut Musk’s fortune to $731.7 billion, according to Forbes, though he remained the world’s richest person ahead of Google co-founder Larry Page and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. The move came after Tesla posted revenue that beat expectations but earnings that came in well below forecasts.
Tesla’s earnings miss hits Musk’s fortune
Forbes said the selloff marked Tesla’s worst intraday decline in more than a year and put the stock on track for its largest single-day drop since June 5, 2025, when it fell 14.2%. The company reported $28.2 billion in revenue, above the $27.2 billion consensus estimate tracked by FactSet, but earnings came in at 33 cents a share, well below the 55 cents analysts had projected.
That gap mattered. Tesla’s stock has long been the main driver of Musk’s wealth, and when it weakens, his net worth moves fast. Thursday’s slide left him with a still-massive lead over the next richest names on Forbes’ list, but the market reaction showed investors are demanding more than a revenue beat.
Vaibhav Taneja, Tesla’s chief financial officer, said during the earnings call that the automaker plans to spend $25 billion this year and more in the coming years. The spending plan did little to soothe investors looking for proof that the money will translate into new products and revenue.
Wall Street wants proof
Analysts focused on Tesla’s robotics and autonomous driving plans. Morgan Stanley said the company needs to deliver “tangible” milestones for its robotaxi and Optimus programs. Canaccord Genuity echoed that view and said it wanted to see meaningful robotaxi deployments over the next six months as Tesla pushed ahead with its AI strategy.
That pressure lands at a delicate moment for Musk. He has spent months steering Tesla conversations beyond cars, but Thursday’s market response showed the auto business still anchors investor sentiment. When that core business stumbles, even a broader vision around robotics and self-driving can feel far away.
The question is not abstract. Tesla’s valuation, Musk’s fortune and investor patience are tied together. A weak quarter does not just shake a stock chart. It hits the balance sheet of the man most closely associated with it.
Paper wealth still enormous
Even after the drop, Musk’s wealth remains overwhelmingly tied to equity values. CNBC reported in June that SpaceX’s updated IPO prospectus showed Musk owned shares in the company worth more than $866 billion on paper, on top of his $350 billion-plus stake in Tesla. The same report said SpaceX planned to price its IPO at $135 a share, valuing the company at about $1.77 trillion.
CNN, also in June, said Musk became the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX went public, putting his total wealth from Tesla and SpaceX at $1.26 trillion. That figure, however, was described as paper wealth, not cash in a bank account. It rises and falls with investor sentiment.
For Tesla, that dependence cuts both ways. A strong quarter can add billions in a day. A bad one can erase them just as quickly. On Thursday, the math was brutal: $18.6 billion gone, and Wall Street still waiting for the next concrete milestone.
Canaccord analysts said they hoped to see momentum around a possible merger between Tesla and SpaceX, but Musk pushed back on that idea during the earnings call, saying, “We can’t talk about, you know, combining companies and that kind of thing on an earnings call—it has got to be done with the appropriate process.”
