Musk loses $113 billion in wealth over two days as Tesla and SpaceX shares fall
Key Facts
Elon Musk lost about $113 billion of his estimated wealth over Wednesday and Thursday’s sessions, according to a Fortune report citing the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of the market close on November 5. His estimated loss was $33.5 billion on Wednesday, then $79.7 billion in Thursday’s selloff. The decline came as Tesla and SpaceX shares fell, before pressure widened to the U.S. market and technology stocks in the second session. Fortune estimated that the companies’ combined market value fell by about $456 billion over 48 hours. The contrast between the two sessions shows that the decline in the companies’ shares began on a day when indexes rose, then coincided with a broader selloff on Thursday.
At Wednesday’s close, Tesla shares fell 3.3% and SpaceX shares fell 3.8%, while the S&P 500 rose 1.6%, according to Fortune. The Associated Press said concerns that Musk could face congressional investigations contributed to the early decline in shares of his two companies. The news agency quoted Joe Mazzola of Charles Schwab as saying those concerns "contributed to the early decline in the two companies that are a benchmark for him." The Associated Press estimated that Tesla shares erased about $40 billion from its market value on Wednesday, bringing it to $1.54 trillion. In a separate estimate for that day, the agency, citing Forbes, said Musk’s wealth stood at $865.6 billion after a loss of about $45 billion; those figures relate to Wednesday’s session alone.
The market’s course changed on Thursday, as the S&P 500 fell 4.4% to 7,353.73 points and the Nasdaq declined 5.5% to 24,315 points, according to the Associated Press. The Dow Jones fell 1,833.06 points, or 3.4%, to 51,523.06 points. The agency said the S&P 500’s loss was its worst since the April 2025 decline. It also said the selloff was led by stocks tied to the construction of AI data centers, and Thursday’s losses erased more than the gains from the previous day, the U.S. market’s best session in three months. Tesla shares fell more than 11% and SpaceX shares about 9% on Thursday, according to Reuters via Investing.com, while EL7 data showed Tesla closing at $343.69 a share and SpaceX at $123.62.
Fortune estimated Tesla and SpaceX’s combined market value at about $3.5 trillion on the night of Tuesday, November 3, compared with about $3.04 trillion on the night of Thursday, equivalent to a decline of about $456 billion. Reuters via Investing.com said the companies were on track to lose more than $380 billion in market value during the trading week ending Thursday. These estimates concern the companies’ market value, while the Bloomberg index measures Musk’s estimated personal wealth; the Forbes figure reported by the Associated Press also dates to Wednesday. Against the backdrop of the loss, the Associated Press said Musk spent at least $445 million to help Republicans retain control of Congress, but the party lost control to Democrats. The agency added that the election results increased the likelihood that governments would impose a temporary halt on the construction of new data centers.
Investors’ concerns focus on the effect of the election results on data-center expansion. Reuters via Investing.com quoted Goldman Sachs analysts’ estimate that Democratic victories at the state and municipal levels could lead to a short-term temporary halt to projects. That could affect about 45% of planned U.S. data-center capacity expansion, according to the analysts’ estimate. The agency said more than half of SpaceX’s third-quarter sales came from renting computing capacity, while Tesla’s energy unit is promoting storage systems to data-center operators. By contrast, Fortune said SpaceX was set to reach computing capacity of between 2.5 and 3 gigawatts by the end of 2026, and that Musk aims to add 10 gigawatts by 2027. Reuters via Investing.com reported that the election results could complicate the prospect of a merger between the companies, while an analyst said the deal could face a tougher regulatory path in 2027.