Every billionaire loves to tell tales about starting from a place of humble origins, and Elon Musk is no different. The tech mogul claims he came from a less-than-privileged background, but reports contradict this by suggesting he grew up extremely wealthy because his father Errol Musk had some stake in an emerald mine in Zambia. Still, Musk likes to double down on the claim that he had an unhappy childhood and that his family wasn’t wealthy. Regardless, the South African has not found himself at the forefront of US politics, in Donald Trump’s government. From being universally loved, to now people questioning his integrity, the tech mogul is experiencing a crash of sorts—with the value of X (formerly Twitter) steadily dropping, and now Tesla rapidly suffering the same fate.

So, it was a billionaire’s nightmare at The Joe Rogan Experience #2281 on Friday night when Elon Musk was featured for the sixth time—only $15 billion poorer. Tesla’s sales in Europe have dropped by 45% compared to last year, according to a Bloomberg report. In this podcast, Musk discussed his role in Tesla’s origin and how a $918 billion entity came up from scratch.

Rogan touched upon the point where many people feel that Musk only helped an already designed model launch into the market. Drawing his examples of Elon buying ‘Twitter’ (now ‘X’), Joe asked if he is in the business of taking over business ideas and transforming them into something big. Musk replied, “Most of the time, I create businesses from scratch. Twitter was a case when bought, I kinda knew was like a hairball.”

On that, Joe directed his question straight towards his involvement in Tesla “when you came into Tesla, they were already doing something right?” to which Musk replied,  “No, Tesla didn’t exist in any meaningful form. There were no employees. JV and I joined three other people. There was no car, no nothing.”

Joe Rogan further stressed on clarifying it to the audience, “So there wasn’t even a prototype yet?”. Elon answered, “No. there weren’t even any employees.” Then, finally dismissing the opinion, the podcaster said, “That’s a funny narrative that people like to say you didn’t even create Tesla then.” to which,Musk replied bluntly in two words, “That’s wrong”.

Indeed, many people over the years have detracted Elon Musk’s claim to founding companies like PayPal, Tesla and Space X. Many people argue that the tech mogul is a savvy businessman, but in no way was he responsible for creating the products and services of the companies he headed. Whether that’s true or not, one thing is for sure—Tesla stocks are taking a nosedive, especially because of his recent ventures into politics and “free speech.”

Elon Musk and Tesla taking a head fall

Other electric car manufacturers and competitors in Europe have seen a rise in their sales in Europe, according to the aforementioned report by Bloomberg. Last Tuesday saw Tesla’s share taking a nosedive and dropping to 8.4%. Tesla’s market capitalization is now down to $918.25 billion from what was over a trillion dollars in the month of November. 

Tesla sold slightly below 10000 cars in the month of January as per the reports. This number was over 18000 last year. The drop in sales in the EU is even more than 50%. A speculation that revolves around this drop questions Tesla’s ‘image’ in the European market. According to Reuters, an update in Tesla, which was supposed to enhance the auto-drive feature, fell short of expectations. 

Apart from the car, Musk’s own reputation in the European’s minds may have seen a shift, largely due to EU citizens accusing Musk of interfering with their elections. A few weeks before the February elections in Germany, Musk was seen at an AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) conference—Germany’s far-right party. Chief executive of Electrifying, Ginny Buckley said, “Tesla has been instrumental in driving EV adoption, but Elon Musk’s personal brand appears to be polarizing. Consumers now have more choice than ever, and it’s clear some are turning away from Tesla to explore other options.”

There is another speculation involving President Trump’s decision to make Elon Musk the head of the newly formed DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). As discussed on Joe’s podcast, DOGE will act like auditors in the company called ‘The U.S. Government’ with a mission to save on federal expenditures.

Musk claims that in a short period of just one month in office, they have saved $2 billion. What do you think is ‘The’ reason for this major drop in Musk’s wealth? Let us know in the comments.