Elon Musk

According to a Bloomberg report, Musk has now seen his wealth drop to $137 billion following a recent drop in Tesla shares. The shares of his electric car company are down nearly 65 per cent. In January 2021, Musk became the richest person in the world for the first time, with a net worth of more than $185 billion. Musk saw his fortune peak in November 2021, hitting $340 billion, before a massive drop. Last month, he was replaced by Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of luxury brand Louis Vuitton's parent company LVMH, as the world's richest man.

In a complaint, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claimed that the electric car-maker "told employees not to complain to higher level managers about their pay or other conditions of employment" and said "not to discuss their pay with other persons". The company also allegedly told employees not to discuss the hiring, suspension, or termination of employees with others. These incidents occurred from December 2021 to January 2022, the complaint alleged. A judge will hear the arguments laid out by the complaint during a hearing in February.

Fidelity's Contrafund valued its Twitter shares at $53.47 million on October 31, just days after Musk's $44 billion acquisition deal was closed, reports Axios. It then revalued the shares at around $23.46 million as of November 30, representing a 56 per cent decline. Fidelity was among investors that helped Musk finance his $44 billion acquisition of the micro-blogging platform by purchasing equity.

Reacting to a user who asked him if it would make sense for Twitter to buy Substack and more tightly connect the two platforms, Musk replied: "I'm open to the idea". "Twitter plus Substack creates instantly massive competition for obsolete legacy corporate media," the user posted. Musk's reaction came after witnessing a lukewarm response from mainstream and corporate media on various versions of "Twitter Files" that he has revealed via independent journalists.

Farzad Mesbahi, a YouTuber who covers future technologies, tweeted: "On today's All In podcast @elonmusk says, We've gotten the expenses (of Twitter) under control, so the company isn't on the fast lane of Bankruptcy anymore". To which Musk replied: "Twitter isn't secure yet, just not in the fast lane to bankruptcy. Still much work to do".

Tesla's stock has plunged dramatically since Musk bought Twitter in April this year. Tesla shares are down more than 60 per cent since then, as Musk is busy micro-managing daily affairs at Twitter.

The report came as Elon Musk said that the US government "paid Twitter millions of dollars to censor info from the public". According to a CNBC report, Musk has been actively searching for a replacement even before posting the poll on Sunday. In fact, that search has been "ongoing", the report added.

Only 43 per cent followers want him as Twitter CEO, a job that has created all sorts of problems for him. Musk started a poll asking users if he should quit as Twitter head and also assured that he will abide by the poll results. "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll," said the Tesla CEO.

Tesla stock has nosedived around 60 per cent since January this year, and traded at $156.80 after hours this week. When a Twitter follower said that Musk has now erased $600 billion of Tesla wealth and still nothing from the Tesla board of directors which is "wholly unacceptable", he said Tesla is executing better than ever.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk, 51, is now worth $168.5 billion (as of Tuesday), less than the $172.9 billion net worth of Arnault, 73. Last week, Arnault and his family for the first time logged personal wealth of $185.4 billion, ahead of Musk which recorded a net worth of $185.3 billion, before jumping again to $190 billion.