NEW YORK (CNN) — Elon Musk's destruction of wealth is a milestone.
The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter is now worth about $137 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, enough to take second place on the list of the world's most wealthy people, behind LVMH president Bernard Arnault. .
But at its peak, in November 2021, Musk's net worth was $340 billion.
Bloomberg reported last week that this made Musk the first person to fail with a net worth of $200 billion.
Most of Musk's wealth is invested in Tesla, whose shares are set to drop 65% in 2022. Demand for Tesla has weakened as competition from electric vehicle makers has increased over the past year. The company has no growth targets and cuts production in China.
Buyers' disinterest in Tesla cars was evident last month, when the company announced a one-time sale to clear stock. Tesla offered two discounts to buyers who purchased a vehicle before the end of the year, initially with a discount of $3,750 and then doubling the discount to $7,500 two weeks before the end of 2022.
The discount worried investors and the stock fell 37% in December.
Critics have long wondered whether Tesla will be worth $1 billion by early 2022. At its peak, Tesla was worth more than the 12 largest automakers on the planet combined, despite having a fraction of their sales.
Tesla closed the year with a valuation of $386 billion, still well above its automotive rivals but well below the tech titans Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon, with which it was compared a year ago.
Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter did not help either Tesla's stock or Musk's personal fortune. Musk, Tesla's largest shareholder, has sold $23 billion in Tesla shares since his interest in Twitter became public in April.
His incessant tweets and increasingly erratic behavior, especially since he took over as Twitter CEO, have discouraged Tesla investors, who want Musk to show more interest in a much larger and more valuable company. Musk defended himself against the criticism by saying he hasn't missed any important Tesla meetings since taking over Twitter.
Tesla shares will rebound and Musk could once again be the richest man in the world. But Musk's reputation for genius has come at a high price in 2022, almost as much as his personal fortune.