Elon Musk, the billionaire tech investor who founded SpaceX and Tesla, apparently lost a lot of his net worth during the rise of DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup that is shaking up the technology sector. Musk is now estimated to be worth US $351 billion (or Rs 30.70 lakh crore), reflecting a staggering drop of US $81 billion (or Rs 7 lakh crore).
As assessed by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the loss was linked to stock price fluctuations, shifts in technology stocks, and disruptive innovations by DeepSeek that kindled uncertainty among investors across the upper echelon of global capitalist companies and moguls.
Musk continues to pocket most of his wealth from Tesla and SpaceX ventures. As of March 2, 2025, Musk owned a 42 percent share in SpaceX through a trust. Trumped over by Tesla, the firm was valued close to US $350 billion around a December 2024 tender. In comparison, his stake would amount to around US $136 billion.
However, Tesla continues to be the most valuable automaker in the global market as of February 28, 2025, with a whopping US $942.37 billion market cap. Musk's stake of 13 percent in the electrifying vehicle giant is now worth close to US $120 billion.
Nonetheless, his investment in X Corp (formerly known as Twitter) has not been profitable. After buying the site in 2022 for US $44 billion, his investment has depreciated by 69 percent. As of now, his stake is worth a mere US $8.06 billion, estimated by the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund.
Musk’s disinvestment is but a drop in the ocean compared to the losses run up by some of the world's richest people.
Musk's financial loss is part of a larger trend that has hit some of the world's richest people. As per a report in NDTV, several tech industry executives have lost significant amounts of money because of stock market fluctuations and investor worries about profitability in the future. Among the largest losers:
Jensen Huang (CEO of Nvidia): Lost around US $20 billion as the stock of Nvidia fell.
Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Meta): Experienced a US $11 billion drop in his wealth.
Larry Ellison (Oracle Chairman): Lost US $27.6 billion as Oracle's shares declined 14 percent.
Michael Dell: Lost US $12.4 billion, primarily because of the decline in Nvidia's stock.
Larry Page (Google Co-founder): Lost US $6.3 billion.
Andreas von Bechtolsheim (Google investor): Lost US $5.4 billion.
The biggest change was a knee-jerk towards some Chinese AI companies like DeepSeek, which have developed certain breakthroughs in AI, further stiffening competition in the field. With the emergence of DeepSeek, a reevaluation of AI investment has spilt out and poisoned major players like Nvidia and Tesla, two firms that are key to Musk's wealth.
Nvidia, one of the largest AI chipmakers, has taken a larger hit, losing a staggering 600 billion US dollars in market value due to the fear that DeepSeek's advances would damage Nvidia's dominance in AI chipmaking.
Tesla, though still standing firm in valuation, has not been spared from market pressure. The electric vehicle sector is increasingly confronted with competition, supply chain disruptions, and volatile consumer demand. Other technology companies, meanwhile, have also been coping with changing market conditions and rising competition.
With the increasing attractiveness of DeepSeek in the AI industry, Musk's ability to counter the increasing number of competitors will come into view. The ambitions of Tesla's AI-imbued autonomous vehicles and the technological advancement of SpaceX need to be kept on the edge in a more and more competitive space. It seems that Musk's fate may be dependent, therefore, on how well he tactically spruces up to the evolving scenario of the AI field where DeepSeek is coming up as an impressive contender upon the establishment into the area."
However, the setbacks in the future cannot be overlooked. With growing competition in the technology and automobile industries, Musk's leadership in navigating his firms through market volatility will be imperative in deciding if he can regain lost ground. Though stocks can be volatile shortly, long-term strategic moves will be decisive in determining his financial destiny.