Elon Musk’s recent tweet on his company’s yet to be concluded partnership with Hertz cost the world’s richest billionaire $9.32 billion in his wealth valuation, pegging his wealth after Tuesday’s trading at $326 billion.
Tesla Inc. shares dropped after Tesla CEO, Musk criticized Hertz Global Holdings Inc.’s acquisition of 100,000 electric cars for its rental-car fleet and downplayed its potential.
Musk disclosed in a tweet that Tesla has not signed a contract with Hertz yet, adding that because Tesla is producing more vehicles than it is able to sell, the deal with Hertz has no impact on the company’s economics.
In spite of Tuesday’s decline, Tesla has risen 29% to a market value of $1.18 trillion since Hertz announced its EV initiative. Hertz has soared 42% in the same time frame.
In response to Musk’s tweet, Hertz said Tuesday that it has already begun receiving Tesla cars under its $4.2 billion plan to add them through 2022.
Approximately a tenth of Tesla’s annual production capacity will be covered by this order.
Hertz announced last week that it had ordered 100,000 Tesla electric vehicles and would invest in new EV charging infrastructure globally.
“We have already begun deliveries of Teslas. In our rental fleet, we have seen very strong demand for Tesla vehicles early on, which is indicative of a strong market for Tesla vehicles,” Hertz said in a statement.
Despite that, Musk, the Tesla CEO, still is worth three times as much as Warren Buffett who is worth $105 billion.
