With the ups and downs of Tesla's stock price, Musk's position as the world's richest man has once again changed hands.
On March 4th Eastern Time, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed that Tesla's US stock price closed down 7.2%, and its market value evaporated overnight by $46.1 billion. CEO Musk's net assets fell to $1977 billion, surpassing Amazon founder Bezos with a net worth of $2003 billion.
This is the first time in over 9 months that Musk has fallen to become the world's richest person, and also the first time Bezos has become the world's richest person since 2021.
Although Amazon and Tesla have all been selected as the top seven popular technology stocks that support the development of the US stock market (Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Tesla, Apple, and Amazon), their current situation is completely different. Amazon's stock price has more than doubled since the end of 2022, just one step away from a historic high. Tesla's stock price has fallen by 50% compared to its peak in 2021.
According to Forbes tracking records, 2021 is a milestone year for Tesla since its launch in 2010, with no exception: a total of 936000 vehicles were delivered throughout the year, doubling from the previous year and ranking first in global electric vehicle brand sales. The company's revenue and profit both reached a new high since its listing 19 years ago, with a staggering net profit of 5.5 billion US dollars, equivalent to 34.7 billion yuan in Chinese yuan, equivalent to a daily net profit of 100 million yuan.
So in 2021, Tesla's market value exceeded $1 trillion for the first time, surpassing Toyota to become the world's most valuable car company, and also the fifth "trillion dollar giant" after Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet. In September of the same year, Musk became the world's richest man, and in November, his wealth reached a peak of $320 billion.
After reaching the top, although Tesla continuously broke performance records, it also encountered growth difficulties last year. Recently, Tesla announced its fourth quarter and full year results for 2023. Tesla's revenue for the fourth quarter of last year was $25.2 billion, with an adjusted earnings per share of $0.71, both of which fell short of expectations. The company's annual revenue was 96.7 billion US dollars, with a year-on-year growth of only 19%, which is significantly slower than the growth of 70% and 50% in the previous two years.
Tesla also issued a warning during its latest earnings conference call, stating that growth in 2024 is likely to be lower than last year. Musk has also stated that Tesla will no longer be committed to achieving past growth rates.
Electric vehicles have also entered the hottest period of the industry in the fierce price war. Over the past year, Tesla has taken the lead in lowering prices, and the prices of Model 3 and Model Y have been pushed to historic lows. The gross profit margin of the company for the whole year of 2023 was 18.2%, and in 2021, the company led the industry with a gross profit margin of up to 30%. Entering 2024, Tesla's price war is still ongoing, and the company has launched three more direct price reductions or preferential subsidies in the first three months. It is widely believed that it is only a matter of time before Tesla's gross profit margin drops below 18% if it continues to maintain last year's price reduction pace.
As a comparison, Amazon, which helped Bezos regain the richest man, spent the past year in "opening up resources and cutting costs".
After Amazon founder Bezos issued an economic recession warning in an interview with CNN at the end of 2022, Amazon simultaneously launched multiple rounds of layoffs and cost contraction. In 2023, the revenue was $574.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12%, and the net profit was $30.4 billion, successfully reversing the decline of a net loss of $2.7 billion in 2022.
According to Forbes Rich List records, during 2022, Musk was surpassed by Bernard Arnault of the French luxury goods giant LVMH Group due to the decline in Tesla's stock price. Later, Musk returned to the top spot and continued to rank first on Forbes' 2023 World Rich List released in April last year.
According to the latest data from Bloomberg Wealth today, Bezos, Musk, and Arnold are among the top three billionaires in the world, with personal assets of $2003 billion, $1977 billion, and $1970 billion, respectively. Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates ranked fourth and fifth, with personal assets of $179 billion and $150 billion.