Why Elon Musk's Net Worth Has Decreased By $20 Billion

Back in January, Tesla CEO Elon Musk passed former Amazon boss Jeff Bezos when it comes to being the richest of the rich. In fact, with a staggeringly massive net worth, Musk officially earned the title of "the wealthiest person in the world" after his fortune shot to the moon over the course of 2020, according to Vox's Recode.

Indeed, thanks to the fact that Musk had "a few billion more than Bezos" with a jaw-dropping fortune that was in the range of $188.5 billion, he reached a milestone that many people could never even dream of achieving. In response to the monumental financial feat, he tweeted, "How strange." He then added, "Well, back to work..."

While Musk didn't seem overly impressed with the funds-related accomplishment, we have to wonder how he feels about the fact that he just lost more than $20 billion in a shockingly short amount of time. And if you know what he's been up to lately, then you might know why his fortune took such a big hit.

Elon Musk can certainly afford to be a little frivolous with his fortune thanks to the fact that it's so unbelievably big. However, in May, he lost a major chunk of cash when his worth dropped by a shocking $20.5 billion, according to Forbes. So, what went wrong? Well, the stunning financial hit came after Musk's "controversial appearance" on "Saturday Night Live."

The financially-focused outlet broke down the situation, noting that following Musk's "SNL" gig, shares in his company, Tesla, fell 15%. That, in turn, significantly hit his personal fortune, "which consists largely of a 21% stake in Tesla plus a stake in private spaceflight company SpaceX." While Musk has also been making other buzz-worthy moves since deciding to pop up on late-night TV — like making less-than-supportive comments about Dogecoin, per Forbes, and announcing that Tesla wouldn't be accepting Bitcoin, which both resulted in a dive around the value of cryptocurrency — it definitely seems like it was the "SNL" spot that initially sparked the serious financial situation.

Granted, what this means is that Musk still has around $145.5 billion — making him the "third-richest person on the planet" — so he might not even have noticed that he lost (what is a possibility to him) a measly $20.5 billion. However, he still might want to think twice before he accepts a second invitation to host "SNL."