After a SpaceX rocket explodes, Elon Musk loses $13 billion in one day

April 21, 2023 was a day of mixed fortunes for Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX. It began with Tesla announcing a significant decline in profits for the first quarter of 2023. Despite higher revenues, quarterly profits dropped by 24% to $2.5 billion. This led to a 9.75% drop in the company’s share price, which fell to $162.99.

Tesla has been struggling to stimulate demand for its electric cars and has reduced prices six times since the beginning of the year. The latest drop in profits is a worrying trend for the company, and it remains to be seen whether it can recover in the coming months.

However, the biggest blow to Musk’s fortunes came later that day when SpaceX’s experimental rocket, the « Starship, » exploded during testing. The Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket in the world, with a length of 120 meters, making it longer than NASA’s new giant rocket, the SLS, which is 98 meters long. The Starship is intended for trips to the moon and Mars, and its take-off power is twice as strong as the SLS and Saturn 5 rockets.

The Starship took off successfully from Texas but exploded after about four minutes, becoming a fireball over the Gulf of Mexico. The cause of the explosion is not yet known, but the setback is a significant blow to SpaceX’s ambitions to send humans to Mars.

The day’s events had a significant impact on Musk’s wealth, with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index reporting that he lost $12.6 billion in one day. This made him the most significant losing billionaire in the index, and his total wealth fell to $164 billion. Despite this, Musk remains the second richest person in the world, behind Bernard Arnault, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the French luxury goods giant LVMH, who has a total wealth of $211 billion.

Elon Musk has been a trailblazer in the fields of electric cars and space exploration, but the events of April 21, 2023, serve as a reminder that even the most successful entrepreneurs are not immune to setbacks. It remains to be seen how Musk and his companies will bounce back from this difficult day, but there is no doubt that he will continue to push the boundaries of innovation and technology in the years to come.