The billionaire status of Elon Musk has seen a dramatic reversal, with his net worth slipping below the trillion-dollar mark barely weeks after he first achieved it.
Musk's estimated net worth fell to $957 billion on Wednesday, according to the daily ranking of the world's richest people.
The entrepreneur's fortune slipped after the shares of his companies, SpaceX and Tesla, came under heavy pressure this week. The shares have been volatile since SpaceX made its stock market debut, with the aerospace group raising a record-breaking $75 billion at a valuation of $1.75 trillion.
SpaceX's relatively small public float has contributed to the sharp swings in the price, as limited trading volumes have triggered outsized movements in the stock. The group's $25 billion bond sale, completed this week, also drew attention to the capital-intensive nature of the business.
Tesla, where Musk remains chief executive, dropped 1.6 percent to $375.61, extending a difficult run for the company. The sell-off across technology and growth stocks has been driven by investors reassessing lofty valuations, with a Bank of America report forecasting three US interest rate rises this year to counter rising inflation.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs have also drawn comparisons between the current technology rally and the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s, highlighting the tension between strong fundamentals and stretched valuations. Despite the correction, Musk remains comfortably the world's richest person.
The billionaire's fortune is built almost entirely on the share price of two volatile businesses, SpaceX and Tesla. This makes the path back below $1 trillion potentially as swift as the climb above it, underlining an uncomfortable truth for founder-led growth companies.
