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Topics: US News, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates
Dominic Smithers
While Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are three of the wealthiest men on the planet, the past five months hasn't gone all their way.
It's been revealed that this year alone has seen the trio lose over $100 billion collectively.
Now, don't go starting a JustGiving page yet, they've still got plenty of cash in the bank - but it's still quite a drop.
Bloomberg's Billionaire Index shows how well the world's richest people are doing at any one time, tracking the stock market to calculate their net worth.
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And according to the site's latest list, the Tesla boss has lost $46.4bn over the past few months alone, while Bezos' fortune has fallen by $53.2bn.
Gates, however, has come off quite lightly in comparison, losing just $15.1bn in the same period.
All in, that's a total of $114.7bn down the pan.
But I should repeat, though, all three are still richer than God, so there's no need to worry about them.
The loss means that Musk's net worth currently stands at an eye-watering $224bn and the former Amazon chief has $139bn.
And Gates, who is the fourth wealthiest person in the world, is still worth $123bn.
A big chunk of Musk's wealth disappeared following allegations of sexual misconduct that were made against him emerged earlier this month.
It was reported days ago that Musk-founded aerospace firm SpaceX paid $250,000 to a flight attendant in 2018 to settle a sexual misconduct claim against Musk, who is the world’s wealthiest man.
On the morning of 19 May, Musk was worth approximately $212 billion, but by that evening his wealth had dropped to around $201 billion.
The colossal reduction was reported by Insider, which pointed to figures on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The outlet notes that despite Musk owning 47 percent of SpaceX – which a couple of weeks ago were valued at an eye-watering $125 billion – the stocks of electric car company Tesla, of which Musk is CEO, have more impact on his wealth.
When Insider first reported on the allegations facing Musk, Tesla's share price tanked 6.4 percent.
A flight attendant reportedly accused Musk of exposing his erect penis to her, rubbing her leg without consent and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage.
Musk was quick to refute the allegations on social media, tweeting: “For the record, those wild accusations are utterly untrue."
He also told Insider the story was a ‘politically motivated hit piece’ when the outlet approached him for comment.
Musk wrote: "If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light."
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