Elon Musk Just Lost $12 Billion In One Day: Here's What Happened

Elon Musk shaved billions off his wealth in one day as he tweeted about politics and a socially conscious investing trend, according to a report.

The share price of Tesla sank to its lowest level of the year, causing its CEO's net worth to shrink by $12.3 billion, as Musk was busy Wednesday announcing changes to his political leaning and trashing the S&P 500’s decision to remove Tesla from its stock index tracking the most sustainable and socially conscious companies, Bloomberg reported.

In one tweet, Musk slammed environmental, social and governance investing, or ESG, as "a scam" after Tesla lost its spot on the S&P 500 ESG Index. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and oil and gas corporation Exxon Mobil were still included on the list.

“Exxon is rated top ten best in [the] world for environment, social & governance (ESG) by S&P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list!” Musk wrote. “ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.”

“@SPGlobalRatings has lost their integrity,” he wrote in another tweet.

In a separate tweet, he insisted that Tesla does “more for the environment than any company ever!”

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Musk also predicted that “political attacks” on him would “escalate dramatically in coming months.”

The billionaire then announced on Twitter his political switch from Democrat to Republican.

He said that he supported Democrats in the past because “they were (mostly) the kindness party” but changed his mind because “they have become the party of division and hate.”

“I can no longer support them and will vote Republican,” Musk stated.

Despite his net worth shrinking by $60.4 billion so far this year, Musk remains the world’s richest person, with a net worth of $209.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He trails only Binance’s Changpeng Zhao, who’s down $81 billion, and Jeff Bezos, who has shaved $62 billion off his wealth.

Musk has been extra vocal since he announced in April his offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion, saying the social media company needs to be transformed as a private company because it can “neither thrive nor serve” free speech in its current state.

However, on May 13, Musk said the transaction was “temporarily on hold” until he could get more details about the volume of spam and fake accounts on the platform.

“Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%,” Musk tweeted. “This deal cannot move forward until he does.”

He added in a follow-up tweet: “20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher.”

Twitter responded, in part, by filing a preliminary proxy statement, in which the company stood by the deal.

“Twitter is committed to completing the transaction on the agreed price and terms as promptly as practicable,” the company said.

AFP has learned that Bolsonaro's surprise guest will be billionaire Elon Musk -- seen here in New York on May 2, 2022 Photo: AFP / Angela Weiss