Shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) slid 6% today after Chinese rival BYD (OTC:BYDDY) unveiled DiPilot, an assisted capability that will integrate artificial intelligence features from Chinese AI lab DeepSeek.
The drop in TSLA stock caused CEO Elon Musk to lose $10.1 billion, one of his single-largest declines in net worth. Only an $18 billion loss at the end of January when Tesla missed earnings caused a bigger loss. Musk owns almost 410.8 million shares of TSLA stock.
BYD, which surpassed Tesla as the world’s largest electric vehicle company by sales, has bodied Tesla for market share as the American EV maker continues to see weakness in the China market. Earlier this month, Tesla reported a 32.6% decline in January sales, according to the China Passenger Car Association.
At the same time, BYD sales soared more than 47%. The introduction of DiPilot challenges Tesla’s Full-Self Driving technology and could further pressure sales in the world’s largest auto market.
A convergence of storms
Tesla and Musk face additional headwinds, too. President Trump announced he was raising tariffs on imported aluminum and steel to 25%, which could increase production costs of Tesla EVs.
China has also not responded to Trump’s increase in more broad-based tariff’s on imported goods from the country, which could impact Tesla if Beijing chooses to target the automaker. Canada, for example, has threatened to impose 100% tariffs on Teslas in response to Trump’s tariff threat, singling out the automaker because of his close association with Trump.
Tesla, though, has manufacturing plants in China so retaliatory tariffs would not impact the EV company, but it did open an antitrust probe of Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) immediately after Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods.
Divided attention
Another concern analysts have is that Musk has launched a bid to buy OpenAI for $97 billion. While he is not putting up all the money himself as he did when he bought Twitter, rather assembling a group of investors, Wall Street is worried he is becoming too distracted to run Tesla.
Musk, of course, is also heading up Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency to root out waste and fraud in government spending. He is also running X and constantly posts to the platform. Musk also runs SpaceX and the Boring Company.
Since hitting an all-time high of almost $480 per share in December, TSLA stock has tumbled 32%. That means Musk has lost $62.85 billion in net worth.
Not that he still isn’t the world’s richest person. It was estimated by Forbes after the January plunge that he was still worth $203.6 billion. That put him $20 billion ahead of the second-richest person, Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (OTC:LVMUY). Today’s drop cuts that narrow lead in half.
Key takeaways
Musk has a lot of balls up in the air that he is juggling at the same time Tesla is facing intense competitive pressure. If TSLA stock drops further, if sales decline more, and it loses greater amounts of market share, investors and Tesla’s board may demand he give up some of his side projects.
While his relationship with Trump was seen as potentially boosting Tesla’s prospects, the EV market may have other ideas.
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