Elon Musk poked fun at himself on social media on Saturday, saying he was a “(former) trillionaire” after losing around US$130 billion over five trading days just weeks after he became the first human to ascend beyond billionaire status.
At the same time, the wealth of some executives at ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s leading maker of memory chips, surged as its stock soared 466 per cent on its first trading day in Shanghai on Monday, valuing the company at 3.28 trillion yuan (US$484.5 billion).
Much of the wealth held by tech tycoons in both the US and China is paper wealth rather than accessible liquid assets and is also highly volatile, analysts said.
“Stocks move in natural cycles, an inherent law of financial markets,” said Liu Shengjun, chief of the China Financial Reform Institute, a Shanghai-based think tank. “Unlike previous property tycoons like Hui Ka-yan and Wang Jianlin, today’s tech magnates create huge societal wealth with their intelligence and innovation.”
Fourteen CXMT directors, senior executives and core technical personnel, together with close relatives, hold just over 2 billion shares in the company indirectly.
Chairman Zhu Yiming and president and core technical expert Cao Kanyu hold shares valued at nearly 80 billion yuan (US$11.8 billion) and over 10 billion yuan, respectively.
Meanwhile, Tang Jie, founder and chief technology officer of Chinese AI firm Z.ai, also known as Zhipu, is worth about HK$35.8 billion (US$4.6 billion) based on the Monday closing price of the company’s stock, which listed in Hong Kong in January.
Yan Junjue, the 37-year-old founder and CEO of MiniMax, a peer of Zhipu which also listed in Hong Kong in January, now holds a fortune of roughly HK$18.2 billion.
Yan announced earlier this month that he would waive all salary until the company achieves artificial general intelligence – the industry’s term for AI systems that match or surpass human cognitive abilities. He plans to allocate personal shares equal to 4 per cent of total equity as long-term employee incentives, with an extra 1 per cent stake to support relevant open-source communities.
Entrepreneurship was the “primary productive force of modern economy”, Liu said. “As genuine creators of tangible economic value, entrepreneurs are an extremely scarce and indispensable asset. China is incredibly lucky to have fostered this group of entrepreneurs.”
Musk became a trillionaire, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after SpaceX’s record US$75 billion initial public offering in June, but lost his status as his two listed companies suffered sharp share price declines last week.
Shares of Tesla tumbled 18 per cent – the biggest weekly drop since 2022 – closing at US$313.03 on Friday after the company’s earnings release on Wednesday fell short of expectations.
Massive spending on future projects including robotaxis, humanoid robots and a semiconductor fabrication facility it is building with sister companies SpaceX and xAI drove a surge in spending, pushing cash flow into negative territory for the first time in two years, the company reported.
So far this year, Tesla’s stock has slumped roughly 30 per cent, making it the worst performer among major technology giants.
SpaceX closed at US$115.07 on Friday, its lowest level since its IPO. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
