Elon Musk loses $6.2 billion as Tesla's market cap falls below $1 trillion

New York: Elon Musk's net worth tanked by $6.2 billion to $279 billion on Monday (November 15) from $285 billion on Sunday (November 14), according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index as Tesla Inc's stock extended its recent selloff after investors reacted to CEO Elon Musk's recent share sales of a combined $6.9 billion, as well as to his most recent tweets.

Tesla's stock ended nearly 2% lower at $1,013.39, taking the electric car maker's market capitalization down about $207 billion since before Musk began selling shares last week. The latest stock decline follows a Sunday dispute on Twitter between Musk and Bernie Sanders after the independent U.S. senator demanded that the wealthy pay their "fair share" of taxes.

In a tweet, Sanders wrote, "We must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share. Period." Musk retorted to the same saying, "I keep forgetting that you’re still alive.”

When a user responded to the thread saying, "Bernie is the kind of guy that shows up to a potluck with no dish but Tupperware containers to take food home", Musk responded saying, "Bernie is a taker, not a maker." The billionaire, who has already sold around $7 billion worth of Tesla shares this week, further said, “Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word…”

This is not the first time that Musk has talked about offloading his shares in Tesla. Elon Musk had earlier also tweeted that he would sell 10 per cent of his shares if Twitter users approved of it. The 10 per cent shares would amount to ~17 million shares at the time of his tweet. “Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10 per cent of my Tesla stock,” he tweeted.

During Monday's trading session, Tesla traded as low as $978.60, pushing its stock market value below the $1 trillion mark on an intraday basis for the second time in four sessions. Note that the company first hit the $1 trillion mark late last month. Tesla shares have been sinking post Musk's stake sale based on a Twitter poll last week and experts believe that Musk's Sunday tweet taking potshots at a senior politician may further add pressure on the stock in the coming weeks.

The Tesla chief sold 6.36 million Tesla shares last week after floating the idea in a Twitter poll. He would need to offload about 10 million more in order to fulfill his pledge to sell 10% of his holdings in the electric-vehicle maker. By offloading Tesla shares worth billions of dollars, Musk is likely to accrue a tax bill of around $15 billion.