It wasn’t all that long ago that I had Grok figure out just how much money that Elon Musk has lost just in Tesla stock since its trade high of over $400 per share in Mid-December. It had just broken through the $300 per share range and was headed down – this was a week and a half ago. Grok kindly figured out that Musk had lost over $100 billion in a little over two months. Impressive – or so we thought. As of today, Tesla shares are down another 14% and now trading at somewhere between $225 and $235. And that’s how one goes about losing ten to eleven figures in net worth. Were that Musk’s only problem. Whatever X might be valued at it is worth much more when actually up and functioning, which – alas, as of right now appears to be as dreamy as Tesla at $300 per share. Per a report in JoeMyGod:
The social media platform X, formerly Twitter, was experiencing intermittent outages on Monday, mostly on its app, according to Downdetector, which tracks reports of problems from users on websites.
The first outages on X, which Elon Musk bought for $44 billion in 2022, were reported before 6 a.m. Eastern time, after which the site and app seemed to resume functioning.
But at about 10 a.m. more problems arose, and there were 41,000 reports of outages on X, according to Downdetector. Shortly after 11 a.m., a third spike of reported outages emerged, and the site remained down for many users.
Fascinating. Interestingly enough, Grok is apparently so tied to “X” that it either cannot function or is wholly captivated while its parent is resuscitated on the table. It remains down, too – which doesn’t bode well for NASA, Social Security, your flight, or Musk.
Poor Elon has had quite a go of it lately. Not many people can say that they have been dressed down in the media by Marco Rubio. But if Musk thinks that the Secretary of State’s wrath is a bad run, wait until he faces Tesla shareholders at their next meeting, all with questions like; “Tell us again your exit strategy for alienating half the world’s consumers by diving head first into politics?” For every Tesla sold to the United States government, one won’t get bought by Democrats in the United States, two in the European Union… If the damage can be contained there. Is there any other explanation as to why Tesla would lose almost 50% of its value over 90 days? Ask Grok if it can figure out… Never mind.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and on twitter-X at @JasonMiciak, and follow now on Bluesky.Â
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I’m reminded of the saying Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. In Musk’s case he’s done it to himself with his ketamine addiction. Lot’s of people have smoked weed and not lost their marbles but ketamine is a different animal entirely. Musk is an abuser of it and it seems to me like it’s affected him to a point where he’s past the point of no return. Even if he were to kick the habit he’s done enough damage to his mental faculties he will never be what he once was which was the next Steve Jobs – someone with (only) some of the knowledge and engineering to do the actual work of the companies they ran but were great at marshalling the right people. Not just with the talent but willing to take the abuse heaped on them by the big boss. Oh, and taking credit for the actual genius of his workers.
I figure Tesla board members have long feared other companies finally getting serious about electric cars, and terrified China would go all in on them. Tesla might have been well positioned to be a leader even then, but Musk has had issues with that part of his holdings for a long time. AND Tesla was the primary driver of his becoming uber rich. He’s not the only one losing a shitload of money over what he’s done to the reputation of the company. He’s just far more rich and able to absorb such huge financial losses than his board members and others with large blocks of Tesla stock who get the attention of board members. One has to wonder if at some point they try to step in and sideline him. No doubt he’s insulated himself against such a move but still.
Then there’s the issue with Xitter. We think of Musk as owning it free and clear and in a way that’s true. However he had to round up some financial backers and they haven’t been happy with him for some time. They can call their loans and he can afford it if they do but the platform has enough issues already. He’s driven by thoughts of cuts to workforces and his own might get another big round of them. Over at Bluesky they must be wishing and praying for exactly that to happen. The more unreliable Xitter becomes the faster Bluesky might grow and supplant it.
Musk is going mad, and again because he’s an abuser of a serious drug that can do a lot of damage. Probably more than we even know at this point. It will be interesting in another decade or two as more knowledge about long term effects of “recreational” use become known but it’s hard to believe we’ll discover it’s not so bad after all. It seems to me much more likely we’ll learn it does significantly more damage than we already know. In the meantime however he’s in a position to do a helluva lot of damage. I don’t give a shit what he does to himself, but the damage he’s doing to others from individuals to entire nations and alliances is unforgivable. Mush of what he’s destroying can’t be rebuilt.
Yet the GOP is STILL afraid to step up and take out Trumpty and Musk with him. I hope many of them live long enough to have their grandchildren ask them in accusing tones how they could sit by and let it all happen.
China’s BYD, (part owned for 10+ years by a Mr Warren Buffet), now outsells Tesla in most markets. They only make electric cars too – but crucially they design and make their own batteries, and everything else. They even own the ships that move their new cars and materiel around the world in a nice example of vertical integration.
And they don’t have a madman in charge.
Europeans are dumping Teslas, which they call Swastikars, thanks to Musk’s self-reveal as a neo-Nazi (the salutes, remember?) and that niggling little problem of batteries costing way too much to replace. Musk won’t feel the pinch but his employees sure as hell will.
don’t expect anything from Tesla’s board, Musk has packed it with his relatives and fanboys. other large shareholders might try a class action, I suppose.
I thought I’d never see two drug addicts in our White House.
If musk doesn’t stop with the ketamine he’ll be pissing razor
Too bad, so sad.
I thought I’d never see two drug addicts in our White House.
If musk doesn’t stop with the ketamine he’ll be pissing razor blades
Too bad, so sad.