Elon Musk is the richest man in the world with a fortune worth $210 billion (~RM993 billion) at the end of 2023. But the value of his fortune will shrink by $56 billion (~RM265 billion) after a judge in Delaware denied a stock award of the same value received by Musk in 2018 because it was said to be too extreme.
The decision came after Tesla shareholders sued the company for offering Musk excessive rewards in the form of stock. The shares were awarded after Musk was said to have successfully hit his production targets for the year.
But the shareholders claim that the process of granting shares and what targets need to be achieved were not clear when the decision was taken by the board of directors. Tesla's board of directors will now have to offer Musk a different reward package.
Therefore, Elon Musk is now the third richest person in the world behind Bernard Arnault and Jeff Bezos. This is another piece of bad luck for Musk who saw last year Tesla overtaken by BYD as the world's largest EV manufacturer and the value of X plunged 71.5% compared to $44 billion when he bought it a year ago.