Tesla shares fell by 14% on Thursday amid a conflict between the company’s head and founder Ilon Musk and US President Donald Trump.
As a result, Tesla’s capitalisation fell by $153bn to $1.07 trillion.
Musk’s fortune, according to Forbes calculations, fell by $27bn overnight, to $388bn.
Musk published a series of posts on social network X overnight from Thursday to Friday. In his posts, the businessman said, among other things, that Trump would not have won the election without his support. Musk also responded with a “Yes” to a post whose author called for Trump to be impeached.
Trump, for his part, allowed the cancellation of government subsidies and the cancellation of government contracts with Musk’s companies. The businessman responded by announcing that his firm SpaceX would “immediately begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft.”
Musk also accused Trump of having ties to Jeffrey Epstein, who is suspected of sexual offences, particularly involving minors. Epstein committed suicide in prison 2019.
In additional trading on Thursday, the price of Tesla securities rose 0.8% on media reports that White House officials are trying to mitigate the conflict. As Politico wrote, a phone conversation between Musk and Trump could take place on Friday.