Some people even compared Elon Musk’s Tesla’s capitalization to a faster decline than the Starship rocket.
Tesla shares fell nearly 15% in the first session of the week, causing both the company’s capitalization and CEO Elon Musk’s assets to plummet to an unprecedented level.
Specifically, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ranking of the world’s 500 richest people, CEO Elon Musk currently owns 301 billion USD. His assets decreased by 29 billion USD in just one day yesterday, mainly due to the loss of Tesla shares.
At the close of trading on March 10, shares of the American electric car company fell 15%. This was the worst session for this code in more than 4 years, extending the decline in 2025. The reason for this decline is mainly due to Wall Street’s concerns about the demand for electric cars.
On March 10, UBS analyst Joseph Spak lowered his forecast for Tesla deliveries in the first quarter and for the entire year of 2025. Accordingly, the company may only deliver 367,000 cars this quarter, down 16% from the previous estimate. He also no longer expects Tesla to sell more cars this year than last year.
Investors also believe that Musk is neglecting Tesla. He has recently been busy leading the Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE), helping US President Donald Trump reduce budget waste.
“Tesla’s biggest challenge in 2025 is not technology, but brand image. Musk’s deep involvement in politics is affecting sales, customer loyalty and investor confidence,” said Jacob Falkencrone, global head of investment strategy at Saxo Bank.
In the US, protesters recently gathered at a series of Tesla showrooms to express their growing frustration with Elon Musk’s role in government.
In response, speaking on Fox, billionaire Elon Musk admitted that he will continue to work for the US government for another year before returning to focus on business.
Tesla shares have fallen every week since Elon Musk joined the White House, wiping out more than 50% of its market capitalization, or nearly $800 billion.
“In the long run, everything will be fine,” Elon Musk reassured investors on Twitter-X after Tesla’s stock fell by a historic amount.
Investors are increasingly frustrated with Elon Musk and Tesla, says analyst Garrett Nelson at CFRA Research.
“We think shareholders have legitimate concerns about Elon Musk being distracted by too many projects. It’s clear he’s spending more time on DOGE than anything else right now,” Nelson told BI.
According to Nelson, billionaire Elon Musk should promote someone to share the work instead of taking on everything at once and then getting distracted and everything not working as effectively as desired.
“They need to promote a member of senior management to take on more responsibility to keep Tesla on track with its short- and medium-term goals,” Nelson said.
Longtime Tesla shareholder Ross Gerber disagrees, saying that’s not enough. Mr. Gerber believes Elon Musk is hurting Tesla and the simplest solution is for the CEO to completely step back from the company’s day-to-day operations and let it run itself.
Investor Gerber believes Tesla should hire someone else as CEO to continue running the company effectively and not make political statements and moves that affect sales.
“The truth is that the company should be run by someone who is not too interested in politics and can bring the brand back,” Mr. Gerber said.
Tesla’s market capitalization evaporated $125 billion in just the first session of the week. Since the beginning of the year, the electric car company’s stock has fallen 41%, causing Musk’s assets to decrease by $132 billion.
Still, he remains the world’s richest person, followed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($216 billion) and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg ($211 billion).
Musk has a diverse fortune. According to Forbes, he owns 12% of Tesla and 42% of aerospace company SpaceX. He also owns more than 70% of social network X and about 60% of xAI, the artificial intelligence startup he founded.
Musk was the world’s richest person last year, adding more than $200 billion to his fortune. His fortune skyrocketed in late October, thanks to his support for President Donald Trump during the election campaign. His fortune grew in part because SpaceX’s valuation was pushed to $350 billion.