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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
