Stephen Colbert consoles Elon Musk after he loses $100bn: ‘You’re not alone in these tough economic times!’

‘All of us are having to cut back on how many cars we shoot into space’

Stephen Colbert consoled Elon Musk after the Twitter chief executive’s wealth loss this year exceeded $100bn.

“After a series of very public setbacks, Elon Musk’s 2022 wealth loss exceeds $100 billion,” Colbert announced on Thursday night’s (24 November) episode of The Late Show.

“Listen, Elon. I know belt-tightening is no fun, but you’re not alone in these tough economic times! OK?” joked Colbert. “All of us are having to cut back on how many cars we shoot into space.”

Musk holds the title for the world’s richest person.

His wealth had risen from $25bn to nearly $200bn in less than a year. But a recent Bloomberg report said Musk lost $100bn this year after Tesla shares dropped to their lowest level.

Apart from Twitter, the billionaire is best known as the boss of electric car company Tesla and private rocket firm SpaceX.

He also heads brain-tech startup Neuralink and The Boring Company, which aims to “solve traffic” in cities by digging tunnel networks.

Before any of these ventures, Musk gained notoriety in Silicon Valley as the co-founder of online payments platform X.com, which went on to become PayPal.

Each new project has been financed, at least in part, by funds generated from previous business successes, with each new effort by Musk becoming even more ambitious.

(NTB/AFP via Getty Images)

Ever since buying Twitter, Musk has been on a string of controversial social media antics while carrying out downsizing efforts within the organisation.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

Most recently, he fired half of Twitter’s employees ahead of the holidays and reinstated the Twitter accounts of controversial personalities such as Kanye West and Donald Trump.

Recently, he also appeared to mock antiracism initiatives by Twitter’s own staff.

Musk appeared to laugh at T-shirts made by Twitter’s internal business group for Black employees and also criticised Black Lives Matter protestors.

He said that the shirts stemmed from the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and that those protests were misguided.

“’Hands up don’t shoot’ was made up,” he said. “The whole thing was a fiction.”

He then deleted that post, and instead simply shared a link to the Department of Justice report into the death of Michael Brown, which started those protests.