Elon Musk tweets away $50bn

Tesla founder Elon Musk has lost $50 billion, roughly a fifth of his overall worth, in two days following a Twitter poll asking whether he should sell his stock to pay taxes.

As Musk’s fortune mainly comes from his Tesla holdings, his losses also occurred as some $199 billion was erased from the company’s share price during its biggest two-day selloff since September 2020.

Tesla plunged 12% in value early on Tuesday, after closing 4.8% down on Monday.

Musk polled Twitter followers over the weekend to decide whether he should sell 10% of his stake in Tesla. Most of the voters said “Yes,” and Musk pledged to go along with their decision. Analysts, however, argued that Musk would sell his stock regardless to gain on expiring options, and pay-up on taxes and loans.

The drop in Tesla shares comes less than a week after the firm exceeded $1 trillion in market value for the first time ever, propelling Musk’s own fortune to $288.6 billion.

This isn’t the first time that Musk’s Twitter statements have cost him money. Just last Tuesday, Tesla shares dropped by over 4% after he cast doubt on a potential deal with car-rental company Hertz Global.

Still, Tesla is currently up 45% year-on-year. Most of those gains came after the firm reported good results and delivery numbers in the third quarter, beating market expectations.

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