Think you're having a bad year investing in the S&P 500? Elon Musk's losses far outweigh anybody else's.
More than $85 billion of the value of Musk's current stake in the electric vehicle maker has vanished this year, says an Investor's Business Daily analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSmith.
The stock's drop is so massive that Musk also lost his bragging rights as being the world's richest man, says the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk is now second fiddle wealth-wise to Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury brand company LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
To put that into perspective, Musk lost more on Tesla this year than 80% of the entire companies in the S&P 500 are worth. And now, Musk has the dubious distinction of losing more money on Tesla than all the top investors in any stocks dropping the most market value this year. Yes, he's lost more than Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Platforms (he's down $75.2 billion).
Plunging Tesla shares was exactly what Wall Street worried about following Musk's buy of struggling short-messaging service Twitter.
"This is a very nervous few months ahead for Tesla investors as they remain the ones that have been punched again and again by the Musk Twitter antics and the stock now is deep in the investor penalty box until deliveries hit in early January and we get a better sense of the 2023 delivery and production trajectory," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in November.
The $85 Billion Hole In Elon Musk's Pocket
Tesla's plunging stock, down 54% this year, is to blame for Musk's fast evaporating wealth. It hits hard as Musk is still the largest holder of Tesla stock, with a stake worth 14% of the company or $80 billion.
But don't think Musk is the only one suffering from this massive destruction of shareholder wealth at Tesla. The value of Tesla itself is down nearly $550 billion this year, which ranks as the sixth largest drop among the S&P 500.
And you're likely a big holder of the stock, too. Thanks to Tesla's massive market value remaining ($514 billion), the stock is still a 1.3% position in the S&P 500 and the world's most popular ETF, the S&P 500 ETF Trust,
Because of that, all the major mutual fund and ETF companies are in deep, too. Vanguard is the second-largest holder of Tesla stock. The mutual fund and ETF giant holds 6.8% of the company, valued at $38 billion. So Vanguard investors alone lost more than $38 billion on their positions.
Vanguard isn't alone: All the big fund companies are in Tesla. BlackRock owns 5.4% of Tesla, while State Street Global Advisors owns 3.2% and Capital Research and Management 3.1%.
Elon Musk: Misery Loves Company
It's important to note, though, that Tesla is far from the only megacap company to shed billions in market value this year.
Musk rival, Jeff Bezos, probably isn't laughing anymore when he looks at his position in Amazon.com. Shares of the e-commerce giant are down 45% this year, erasing $747 billion. That's more market value eliminated than by any single S&P 500 company.
And of that, Bezos himself lost $74 billion in personal paper wealth. That's not as much as Musk, but still enough to make a dent.
Vanguard, again, is holding the largest bag of losses on Alphabet's epic drop of $684 billion in market value this year. The Google parent's 34% stock drop this year is hurting No. 1 holder Vanguard the most. Vanguard's stake is down $44.3 billion.
Volatility is certainly part of investing. But these investors are taking the swings to the extreme.
Biggest S&P 500 Losers
Top owners of stocks with the largest market-value drops this year
| Company | Ticker | Stock YTD | Largest owner | Loss on shares this year ($ billions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla | -54.3% | Elon Musk | -$85.3 | |
| Meta Platforms | -64.3% | Mark Zuckerberg | -$75.2 | |
| Amazon.com | -44.5% | Jeff Bezos | -$73.7 | |
| Microsoft | -23.6% | Vanguard | -$50.4 | |
| Alphabet | -34.0% | Vanguard | -$44.3 | |
| Apple | -18.1% | Vanguard | -$40.8 | |
| Nvidia | -38.6% | Vanguard | -$23.1 | |
| Netflix | -46.8% | Capital Research | -$12.1 | |
| PayPal Holdings | -60.9% | Vanguard | -$11.0 | |
| Salesforce | -46.6% | Vanguard | -$9.5 |
Sources: IBD, S&P Global Market Intelligence
Follow Matt Krantz on Twitter @mattkrantz
