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Elon Musk loses billions in net worth after a hectic 24 hours

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Elon Musk has reportedly seen his net worth crash by $12.6 billion after a chaotic 24 hours for Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX.

Musk’s problems began on the morning of April 20th, with Tesla publishing disappointing first-quarter results. The EV company reported a nearly 20 percent decline in gross margins after aggressive price cuts to its vehicle lineup in recent months. This saw the company’s share price drop by 9.8 percent.

Just a few hours later, Musk’s other company, SpaceX, saw one of its test launches of the Starship spacecraft end in a self-described “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” The Starship made it off the ground in what looked to be a success before combusting into a ball of flames just four minutes after takeoff. Musk, who has a substantial 42 percent stake in SpaceX, said another test launch would take place in a few months.

If you’re following along, that’s a 9.8 percent Tesla share price drop, and one exploded test-launch rocket, all before lunch.

To make matters worse, Thursday was not kind to Musk’s latest venture as Twitter’s CEO either. April 20th was also the day that legacy accounts across the site began to see their verified blue checkmarks disappear after Musk confirmed the change a week prior. The decision was made in an effort to get users to sign up for Twitter Blue, a subscription that costs $8 per month. Only select accounts, such as William Shatner and LeBron James, held on to their check marks after the CEO confirmed that he would be fronting the bill for select accounts with notable followings.

This decision was met with backlash from media organizations and the overall Twitter populace, with many concerned that the removal of verified accounts would lead to a spread of misinformation.

Despite a “bad day at the office” for Musk, he remains the second richest person in the world, sitting just behind Bernard Arnault. The recent loss does not eclipse the $26.8 billion dollar increase in Musk’s wealth following Tesla’s 33 percent share price rebound in January 2023.

Perhaps jokingly, the billionaire ended his day with this tweet.

Source: Bloomberg Via: The Verge

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SpaceX Starship launch starts promising, ends in flames

SpaceX launched its next-generation Starship cruise vehicle on April 20th above the company’s Super Heavy booster rocket in a test flight.

The rocket did manage to get off the ground and briefly take flight. Unfortunately, the combo exploded moments later, making for an anti-climactic finish to a highly-anticipated event. Thankfully, no passengers were aboard the rocket and no one was hurt.

The company has described the incident as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

Despite the explosion, the rocketship was an impressive feat before it took off, standing at a staggering 120m tall (394 ft.) The launch was conducted just east of Brownsville, Texas, at the company’s Starbase spaceport and test facility. The launch was scheduled for an hour-and-a-half debut flight to space.

Although an unpredicted explosion was not what SpaceX had planned, the act of getting the booster rocket off the ground in one piece for the first time represents a milestone for the company. Had the launch been fully successful, the Starship system would have been seen as the most powerful launch vehicle on Earth.

Both the Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage Starship vessel are reusable components, meaning they could fly back to earth for soft landings post-launch. Neither piece was recovered from the launch, with both crash landing at sea.

CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter (the platform the multi-billionaire also owns) to congratulate the SpaceX team on the launch. He also stated that he has “learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.”

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: @SpaceX Via: CBC News