Elon Musk’s net worth drops below $400,000,000,000 for the first time in months after Tesla nightmare
The Tesla boss is experiencing backlash for his role in the Trump administration
Elon Musk’s finances have taken a hit after his wealth drops below $400 billion for the first time.
Before we get out a tiny violin, the billionaire is still the world’s richest man.
But his net worth has shrunk after Tesla stocks continue to lose value in the first couple months of the year.
Tesla stocks have dropped in recent months (Christian Marquardt – Pool/Getty Images)
In recent months, Tesla has seen its shares plummet as Musk has taken on a new role in President Trump’s administration.
Assuming the role of head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk has turned his focus on the Treasury Department.
While DOGE isn’t technically a governmental body, the department has been described by Trump as an outside advisor on government spending.
Since his appointment, Musk has been granted access to the Treasury’s payment system, a move that has proven to be controversial among the public.
Fears continue to grow that the Tesla boss could potentially have access to confidential and personal information including Medicare benefits payments and social security numbers of millions of Americans.
As a result, there have been a wave of protests and vandalism against Tesla.
At one protest at a Tesla dealership in southern California, one protestor told KSBY that Musk ‘is shredding our democracy’.
Another protest was held at a Tesla showroom in Manhattan where one organizer spoke to amNewYork, saying: “We were upset with Musk taking over the government.”
Musk’s role in the Trump administration could be the cause of his shrinking net worth (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
And according to Oppenheimer analysts, there is a specific reason why they believe Tesla is going through a slump.
They said: “Musk’s political activity has fans in certain circles, but his public life risks alienating consumers and employees as the Trump administration tests the limits of its power.”
The legality of the practices by the Trump administration has been called into question after 19 state attorneys general sued the government, claiming that giving DOGE access to the records violates federal law.
A preliminary injunction was also put in place by a judge to halt Musk from accessing Treasury data, something he wasn’t best pleased about.
Taking to his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter, the SpaceX CEO said: “How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent?”
In the judge’s order, it said that states would ‘face irreparable’ harm if immediate relief wasn’t implemented.
The order continued: “That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking.”
Featured Image Credit: Christian Marquardt – Pool/Getty Images
Elon Musk finally makes admission about Tesla that backtracks on decade long ‘promise’
The announcement has left many Tesla owners frustrated
Tesla customers have been left frustrated after a recent admission from CEO Elon Musk, as he revealed that the company won’t be able to fulfil a decade-long ‘promise’ that has been pushed back for years.
Despite reports of a sales decline for the first time in nearly a decade, indications of operational revenue losses, and a drop in consumer ‘value’, Tesla still remains the most valuable car company in the world and among some of the biggest names in business full stop.
Elon Musk, having won the title of ‘founder’ in a bitter court case, has catapulted the electric vehicle company into a force to be reckoned with, becoming the go-to brand when most think of EVs despite numerous recalls and the disappointing Cybertruck launch.
However, many Tesla owners have been left feeling frustrated and let down after the company’s latest earnings call, as Musk made an admission that breaks what many considered to be a decade-long promise from the company.
Full Self Driving has been one of the major selling points for Tesla, yet it might not be coming for many users (Mark Leong for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Full Self Driving, otherwise known as FSD, has been the technology driving many consumer’s interest in Tesla as a company for years, and despite having sold it as both a package and a subscription service, it has largely been unavailable to most owners.
Many buyers have bought cars with expensive hardware on the promise that they’d have FSD in the future, but as reported by The Byte, this might not actually be the case.
“The truth is that we’re gonna have to upgrade people’s Hardware 3 [computers] for those who have bought Full Self Driving,” Musk outlined in the Q4 2024 earnings call, indicating that FSD wouldn’t be coming to anyone with HW3 self-driving tech inside their car.
He added that he was “kind of glad that not many people bought the FSD package,” as he shortly revealed that the company would upgrade anyone who did such a thing for free – which will cost the company a lot of money in the process.
What shocked many about this revelation was that it came as an interruption to Autopilot and AI head Ashok Elluswamy’s point, where he outlined that Tesla hadn’t yet given up on HW3.
Many owners across social media have vented their anger as this revelation, with one user remarking that the company is “open to litigation from all the Tesla owners that were blatantly lied to about their vehicles being FSD capable and aren’t eligible for the replacement.”
Many aren’t convinced by Tesla’s FSD promises after years of waiting (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Another added that “Elon should teach a master class on moving goal posts: ‘HW3 is enough! HW4 for sure! HW5 incoming!”
This also hasn’t exactly gone down well alongside news that Austin, Texas will soon be receiving fully unsupervised FSD, as many have pointed out the contrast in the two announcements from the company.
One argues that “we are about at year 10 of Elon saying it’s coming this year,” whereas another points out that “people will still believe his BS and when the June passes they will say ‘oh self driving is hard, just wait it’ll be out soon’.”
From this you’d find it not hard to believe that some are growing tired of the Tesla experience with their patience for long-promised features fading away, but the company remains strong on the market – especially after the US election last year that saw massive gains.
Featured Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Staff / Getty
Tesla owner forced to pay $14,000 in repairs after car ground to a halt one day after buying it
The owner terrifyingly lost control of steering the vehicle
A Tesla owner forced to pay $14,000 in repairs after his car ground to a halt one day after buying it.
When you buy a new vehicle, you expect that you’ll get at least a few thousands miles on it before you start to encounter any problems.
But unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for one unlucky Tesla owner.
Jain, who is from Cambridge, England, bought his Tesla Model Y back in 2023.
The Tesla owner had to fork out on repairs (Daniel Pier/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
But he only managed to drive 115 miles in it before the electric car started to exhibit some notable problems.
It was just one day after Jain was ‘over the moon’ to get his hands on the Tesla that it came to a ‘grinding halt’.
Even more worryingly, the dangerous issue occured while his wife and young daughter were in the vehicle with him.
Jain recalled how, without warning, he lost control of steering the car.
Speaking to Reuters, he said: “They were absolutely petrified. If we were on a 70 mile per hour highway, and this would have happened, that would have been catastrophic.”
Jain went on to learn that his Model Y’s front right suspension had collapsed, and so much so that parts of the car were loudly scraping along the road.
The car needed 40 hours worth of labor to fix the issue, as the suspension had to be completely rebuilt and the steering column needed replacing, amongst other things.
Jain ended up having to fork out an eye-watering $14,000 to pay for this – which Tesla reportedly refused to pay for.
The Elon Musk-owned car manufacturer blamed the accident on ‘prior’ suspension damage.
The Elon Musk-owned car manufacturer reportedly refused to pay for the repairs (Kevin Lamarque – Pool/Getty Images)
LADbible Group has approached Tesla for comment on the matter.
It’s typically Tesla’s infamous Cybertruck that people have had the most issues with; the quality of its build being one of the biggest.
People have also been having problems with the futuristic-looking truck over the winter months.
One person discovered that their headlights were covered with snow because they are placed behind a ledge on the truck.
The Cybertruck owner had to remove the snow from the ledge in question so that the lights would be obvious.
The owner said: “I can’t believe Tesla just didn’t think about this when they put this giant shelf in front of the lights, but if they did, it’s honestly an awful design.”
Not exactly ideal if you were in a rush to get to work one snowy morning…
Featured Image Credit: Daniel Pier/NurPhoto via Getty Images
People just discovering Elon Musk was not the original founder of Tesla but won title after ‘bitter’ legal battle
Musk is ‘just’ Tesla’s CEO, not its founder
Elon Musk and Tesla go hand in hand, as the electric car company played a significant factor in his rise to fame and fortune – yet many are discovering that he didn’t actually start the company, but instead won the title of ‘founder’ in a bitter legal battle.
It is undeniable that Elon Musk has become one of the most powerful people in the world. Not only is he the richest individual on the planet with a net worth nearly double that of the next highest, he also holds significant political power after becoming head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
While his fortunes began early on in life after taking major risks in his twenties that catapulted him into a millionaire, much of his success is owed to the explosion of Tesla as a company, and many consider his name synonymous with electric vehicles.
However, something you – and many others – might not know is that Musk isn’t officially the founder of Tesla, and instead fought his way through a ‘bitter’ legal battle in order to claim the title.
Tesla’s founders were actually Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning (Karol Serewis/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning are the actual founders of Tesla Motors, starting the company in July 2003. As reported by CNBC, the pair met Musk at a gathering for Mars Society, where all three shared an enthusiasm for space exploration well before Musk began SpaceX.
Musk’s first involvement in the company was just under a year later, as he invested around $6,500,000 in the first funding round, which he’d earned from the sale of PayPal. He then became the chairman of the board and the largest shareholder.
Three years later in August 2007 the board, led by Musk, asked Eberhard to step down as CEO. Following this were another two short CEO stints before Musk finally took the title in October 2008.
Fractures continued to show into 2009 though, as Musk was sued by Eberhard for libel and slander as the former had began to call himself Tesla’s founder, despite clearly not being so.
However, Musk and two other executives settled in the case on the condition that they could continue calling themselves founder, as per NBC Bay Area, and that’s where many source their confusion.
Elon Musk settled with Eberhard in order to earn the ‘founder’ title of Tesla (Christian Marquardt – Pool/Getty Images)
There are many posts across social media expressing their shock (and often disappointment) when they realize that Musk didn’t actually found Tesla, and the widespread response isn’t exactly in his favor.
“The Elon Musk brand has largely been to buy something or pay for something and take credit for it,” outlines one user, with another adding that “hopefully you’ve learned a valuable lesson. Don’t trust Elon’s PR or stans.”
Some have pointed out that Tesla was a struggling company and without Musk’s investment they would have found it difficult to continue, but many find his seeming insistence on rewriting history a bit off-putting.
“Elon Musk is a master of retconning real-life history,” argues one comment. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult, if not virtually impossible, to find accurate information about the companies he actually started.”
Some argue that you can even look towards his purchase of Twitter as a sign of this, as the branding overhaul – including the name shift to ‘X’ – has what many call the hallmarks of Musk’s hostile rewriting.
Featured Image Credit: South China Morning Post / Contributor / Getty
Elon Musk’s record $56,000,000,000 Tesla pay package rejected for a second time
Tesla has referred to the decision as ‘wrong’
It looks like Elon Musk is being hit hard in the pocket, with his record-breaking $56 billion Tesla pay packet once again being rejected.
Musk might be on track to become the world’s first trillionaire, but not if Judge Kathaleen McCormick has anything to do with it.
The Tesla CEO has had the record-breaking $56 billion compensation package removed, and despite shareholders voting for him to have it reinstated, McCormick is worried that he has too much power over board members. As the case went back to courts in Delaware, McCormick upheld her decision from January.
She says that Tesla continuously fails to prove that the pay packet is fair, with it originally being awarded all the way back in 2018.
Elon Musk is still being denied his record-breaking pay packet (Pool / Pool / Getty)
75% of Tesla shareholders might’ve approved the payment passing in June, but McCormick says that the Tesla lawyers’ ‘creative’ arguments won’t sway her.
In her ruling, McCormick wrote: “Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here.”
She also ruled that the Tesla shareholder who launched the case against Musk should receive $345 million in fees but nowhere near the $5.6 billion of Tesla shares they originally asked for.
As reported by the BBC, there were worries that a ruling in favor of Musk would damage conflict of interest laws in the state. Among these critics is Charles Elson of the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance. Elson called McCormick’s judgment ‘well-reasoned’: “You had a board that wasn’t independent, a process that was dominated by the chief executive, and a package that was way out of any sort of reasonable bounds. It’s quite a combo.”
Shareholders should control company votes, not judges
A Delaware judge just overruled a supermajority of shareholders who own Tesla and who voted twice to pay @elonmusk what he’s worth. The court’s decision is wrong, and we’re going to appeal. This ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs’ lawyers run Delaware…
As Tesla moved its legal base to Texas in the aftermath of the original ruling, Elson thinks Musk’s team will try and go for a similar pay packet there.
Despite the majority of shareholders rallying behind Musk, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and the California state teachers’ retirement system were among those who voted against the pay packet.
Tesla’s board argued that the jaw-dropping compensation was needed to keep Musk involved with the car manufacturer, which is something (unsurprisingly) echoed by the world’s richest man.
Musk has been vocal about McCormick in the past, and following her latest decision, he took to X to lambast her decision. He told users: “Shareholders should control company votes, not judges.” He’s previously warned other businesses to avoid Delaware, which is a popular state to file incorporation paperwork because of its friendly tax policies
Tesla has also said it will continue to fight the case, referring to it as ‘wrong,’ although it doesn’t sound like McCormick has any intention of changing her mind.
