Tesla’s Brutal Week: Shares Fall 11% in a Day and $80 Billion Comes Off Musk’s Fortune

Tesla shares fell about 11 percent on Thursday, November 5 — a 10.77 percent drop by one market-data count — extending a slide of roughly 15 percent since the midterm elections. The stock was up slightly in premarket trading on Friday, November 6, after collapsing over the previous few days.

The drop wiped around $80 billion from Elon Musk’s fortune on Thursday alone, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, reducing his wealth to $785 billion. The slide followed Democratic sweeps in Texas races Musk had backed with more than $200 million, and investors worried the results could affect his business empire, alongside a broader selloff in AI-related stocks.

The timing stings because Tesla is asking investors to value it on its next bets, not its current cars. Musk told investors last month that Optimus robot production has begun, with deliveries to outside companies expected by the end of 2027, and Tesla aims to get Cybercabs to customers by year-end. A smaller spending plan — about $20 billion for 2026 — produced surprise positive free cash flow, but for a stock priced on robotaxis and robots, investors read smaller spending as slower growth.

Friday brought one more headline for the pile: Musk’s announcement that Cybertruck production winds down in mid-2027 to make room for the Cybercab. The truck’s slow sales made the decision easy to explain, but the market’s verdict on the week is already in — and it is the worst stretch for Tesla shares since the company’s pivot to autonomy began.