Elon Musk once again richer than Mark Zuckerberg: Why latter lost $18 billion

Shares of Meta Platforms Inc. tumbled by 11% on Thursday, making Elon Musk, 52, overtake Mark Zuckerberg, 39. The Meta owner’s net worth plunged by $18 billion, which is the 11th largest one-day net worth drop, making his worth $157 billion now. The Tesla owner became the third richest billionaire as the company added $5.8 billion in wealth, amounting to a total of $184 billion now.

Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are seen. (AFP)

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The two billionaires moved places earlier this month when the news broke that Tesla's car sales dropped in the three months leading up to March causing Mark Zuckerberg to overtake Elon Musk for the first time since 2020.

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The fight between the two extends beyond their wealth, with Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk being involved in several public spats.

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Thursday saw the biggest decline in Meta's shares since October 2022 as the Menlo Park, California-based company raised its annual spending estimates and predicted second-quarter sales that fell short of Wall Street's projections. This raised concerns about whether Meta's investments in artificial intelligence will ultimately pay off for investors.

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The Austin-brd shares Tesla saw a 12% increase on Wednesday and an additional 5% increase on Thursday following Elon Musk's pledge to introduce more affordable cars as soon as this year, allaying investors' fears over underwhelming profit reports and dimmed growth prospects. Prior to the rebound, the company was the poorest performer on the S&P 500 Index, down 42% as of Tuesday's closing.

Elon Musk is currently involved in the expansion of Tesla in the Asian regions and has postponed his visit to India to later this year. Mark Zuckerberg has also been lately involved in innovating Meta and launching new features related to AI on the app.

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