A matter of months later and Musk, the richest man on the planet, was out of the White House. He left behind the Department of Government Efficiency, which he helped create, to refocus on Tesla as it suffered boycotts and a shaky share price.
Then came the almighty falling-out between Musk and Trump, with the latter threatening to pull contracts for Musk’s private businesses.
Musk’s net worth has had a similarly volatile year. While he maintains his position as the richest person on the planet, few people come close to rivaling the eye-watering sum his fortune has lost in 2025.
On the final day of 2024, Musk’s net worth stood at $432 billion—some way off his all-time high of $486 billion, but far from its low. At the time of writing Musk’s net worth stands at $357 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, representing a $75 billion decline.
Conversely, many other people on the world’s rich list have seen their fortunes soar on account of an AI-driven rally in the markets. Oracle’s Larry Ellison, for example, is up from $192 billion at the end of last year to $303 billion at present. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is up from $207 billion at the end of 2024 to $272 billion at the time of writing.
Further down the list, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has netted a loss from $239 billion at the end of 2024 to $234 billion at the time of writing—a fraction of the reduction seen to Musk’s empire.
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has netted a gain in 2025, and Alphabet cofounder Larry Page’s net worth is slightly up from its 2024 end with a current value of $174 billion.
Gates is giving it away
The only person who even comes close to a net-worth reduction as significant as Musk’s is Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates—and he’s giving it away.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows Gates’ fortune dropped from $175 billion to $124 billion overnight on July 2, though this is due to a recalculation. The index explained the figure was lowered “to better reflect Gates’ outside charitable giving.”
The figure, Bloomberg added, was also updated to reflect the announcement Gates made earlier this year in which he confirmed he would be giving away virtually all of his wealth to his foundation.
Gates said the donation of his net worth—approximately $100 billion—comes with a caveat: The foundation’s work, and its $200 billion (including its current endowment and projected growth), must be spent in the next 20 years. Then the Gates Foundation will shut its doors for good.
Even with the astounding sum, Gates continues to call on other high-net-worth individuals and governments to join his work. He told Fortune: “Our resources are nowhere near enough to achieve what everybody should want the world to do.”
Why has Musk’s wealth suffered such a hit?
Tesla stock (from which Musk derives the vast majority of his net worth) has dropped by more than 18% in the year to date.
Its troubles have come from many sides. Analysts have continued to question the fundamentals of the business with sales in Europe and China weakening despite discounts on its EVs.
Its Q2 results shared last month, for example, revealed auto revenues had dropped 16% compared to the same quarter a year ago. Moreover, a rise in energy storage, services, and other businesses failed to fill the shortfall, so that overall revenue declined by low-double-digit percentages. The headwinds sent net profits plummeting 17% to $1.17 billion, approximately two-thirds down on what Tesla was netting per quarter in 2022.
Tesla was also the focus of political protests against Musk’s relationship with Trump. Tesla cars, showrooms, and charging points were damaged beyond repair not only in the U.S. but also across Europe. Molotov cocktails being thrown at vehicles in Las Vegas, gunshots fired at a showroom in Portland, Ore., and charging points set on fire in Boston.
In a show of support, President Trump said he purchased a Tesla for his own collection and parked a number of the vehicles on the lawn of the White House.
Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
