The billionaire CEO of Tesla saw his personal wealth soar during the COVID-19 pandemic, with technology breakthroughs and political sway towards a cleaner world pushing Tesla’s stock price up by 743 per cent in just 12 moths.

Mr Musk, who retains nearly 18 per cent of the companies shares, saw his wealth on paper follow the upward trend and his subsequent naming as the richest man on the planet.  

However, Wall Street has changed tactics, selling off technology-based stocks following the announcement of Joe Biden’s US$1.9 trillion stimulus package, with economists worried the size of the package could lead to higher inflation.

According to the Wall Street, higher inflation could push up the price of loans and send business profits tumbling - predictions which have inspired the current reversal in attitude towards riskier tech stock assets. 

And as Tesla’s stock fell by 16 per cent to $597 a share, Mr Musk’s personal fortunes dropped by US$27 billion, which saw him stripped of his pole position as the richest man on the planet. 

At US$157 billion ($205 billion), Mr Musk now trails Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos by about US$20 billion ($26 billion).

Despite being the largest, Tesla wasn’t the only electric vehicle stock to see its position fall, with Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Nio suffering 40 per cent setback from its highs in late February.  

But Mr Musk's sudden wealth drop also followed a seemingly rash Tweet, in which the man behind the company that chose to back bitcoin with an investment of over US$1.5 billion, labelled the value of bitcoin and ethereum as "high lol". 

The since deleted tweet appeared to cost Musk US$15.2 billion within hours, as the price of bitcoin tumbled. 

Whether the drop in bitcoin was in fact instigated by Musk's Tweet remains a mystery, with experts warning for a while that volatility should be expected. And rightly so, with bitcoin now back at over US$50,000.