Tesla lost about $199 billion in its biggest parallel sell-off since September 2020 amid a slew of negative news.
The noise of negative headlines reached a climax after Ilon Musk polled voters on Twitter over the weekend asking if he should sell his 10 percent stake in the electric-car company, followed by news that his brother Kimball had sold some shares shortly before the vote.
There was also a Business Insider report on Michael Berry, the investor made famous by the movie "The Big Short," that said Musk might want to sell shares to cover his personal debts.
Musk lost $50 billion this week. It's the biggest two-day drop in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and the biggest one-day drop since Jeff Bezos dropped $36 billion after his divorce from Mackenzie Scott in 2019.
The drop narrows Musk's lead over Bezos as the world's richest man to $83 billion.
In January, Musk surpassed the Amazon.com founder for the first time in that title, and the gap between the two recently reached $143 billion, more than the net worth of Bill Gates, fourth on the list of the world's richest men.
"The stock is extremely overvalued from a long-term perspective, and investors are struggling with valuation," said Sakdah Makok, an analyst at Thai exness เข้าสู่ระบบ. He noted that Musk's sell-off survey gave investors "an excuse to pull back a little bit."
Shares fell 12 percent Tuesday after closing down 4.8 percent Monday.
Despite the latest drop, Tesla is still up 45% this year.
Most of those gains came after the company reported strong third-quarter results and delivery figures that far exceeded market expectations, and after rental car company Hertz Global Holdings Inc placed a large order for Tesla vehicles for its fleet.
Despite the downturn, Musk's fortune is still up 70% this year, thanks to Tesla's growth amid strong revenue and delivery growth, as well as SpaceX's higher valuation.
Chip maker Nvidia Corp's latest attempt at unmanned vehicles could put additional pressure on Tesla, as the electric car maker's advantage over rivals in autonomous driving technology is often cited as a major reason for its premium.