Elon Musk, who is one of the richest people globally, lost $16.1 billion on Thursday. This drop in his wealth occurred because the company he owns a significant part of, Tesla, didn’t make as much money as expected in the third quarter. Musk’s total fortune is approximately $209.6 billion, with most of it coming from Tesla. The price of Tesla’s stock fell by 9.3% because the company didn’t meet its financial targets.

During a discussion about Tesla’s performance, Musk mentioned that high interest rates are making people less confident about making purchases. Tesla is known for making electric cars, but in the last three months, they didn’t sell as many cars as they had hoped. They delivered only 435,059 cars during this time, and the money they earned from selling cars is the lowest it has been in over four years due to frequent price reductions.

Despite these challenges, Musk’s wealth increased by over $70 billion this year. This growth is mainly because the price of Tesla’s stock rose, even though the company is facing difficulties. For a brief period, Musk was not the world’s wealthiest person; Bernard Arnault from LVMH briefly held that title. However, Musk has now reclaimed his position as the richest person by a substantial margin.

Despite Tesla’s challenges, the company aims to have 1.8 million customers purchasing their cars by the end of the year. Tesla remains the most valuable car company globally. Additionally, they plan to begin selling their Cybertrucks in November, albeit about two years later than initially announced.