Tesla’s Stock Wipeout Erases $500B, Equal to the Market Cap of Toyota, BYD, Ferrari & Mercedes Combined

March 9, 2:32 pm

Being a CEO with strong political views can be a risky game, and Elon Musk is living proof. His outspoken opinions on government regulations, free speech, and labor policies have earned him both strong support and significant backlash. However, his political actions have not gone unnoticed by Tesla's shareholders, causing one of the worst financial hits this company has ever seen.

According to data presented by Altindex.com, Tesla's (TSLA) stock slump has wiped out nearly $500 billion from its market value, equivalent to the market caps of Toyota, BYD, Ferarri, and Merzedes-Benz combined.

Tesla's Second-Worst Stock Crash Since 2022

After a rough start in 2024, marked by slower growth projections, aggressive price cuts in key markets like China, and rising competition from other EV makers, the world's most valuable car producer, Tesla (TSLA), staged an impressive rebound.

In November, the company hit the one-trillion-dollar mark for the first time, a huge milestone driven mainly by Elon Musk's engagement in Donald Trump’s election campaigns, his endorsement of business-friendly policies, and a record $250 million donation, making him the election’s biggest donor.

While the company’s stock value continued soaring in the weeks after Trump’s election victory, the rally didn’t last, with TSLA stocks being on a steady downward slope for nearly three months. Since peaking at $1.42 trillion on December 17, Tesla’s stock value has dropped almost 40%, with losses accelerating after the inauguration and Musk’s increasingly disruptive presence in the new administration.

At the time of writing, Tesla's stock value amounted to $904 billion, marking a staggering $513 billion drop in just 75 days. To put that into perspective, in just two and a half months, the company has lost an amount equal to the combined market caps of Toyota, BYD, Ferrari, and Mercedes-Benz.

Moreover, statistics show this is the second-largest two-month stock collapse Tesla has seen in its history, trailing only the 2022 crash. Between October and December of that year, the company's market cap nosedived by over 50%, reaching a three-year low of $388 billion amid the tech industry crisis.

Musk's Fortune Shrinks by $123 Billion Since Mid-December

This stock slump hasn’t just hit Tesla; it’s also taken a massive bite out of Musk’s fortune. As Tesla's largest shareholder, Musk has seen his net worth plummet by a jaw-dropping $123 billion since mid-December, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

Despite this eye-watering loss, Musk remains the wealthiest person on the planet by a considerable margin. Even after the hit, he is still worth $115 billion more than the second-ranked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg or Amazon's Jeff Bezos, worth $236 and $232 billion, respectively.

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