Cassandra Peterson—better known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark—bought a Tesla back in 2015. Like many others, she began to have buyer’s remorse upon realizing how much of a loser and alleged Nazi Elon Musk had revealed himself to be over the years.

Most people, upon realization, would quietly sell the car on Craigslist, but Elvira, in showgirl fashion, decided to make a whole event around donating her now-disgraced automobile.

In a video posted on Instagram, she shows off a custom paint job done on the side of the Tesla reading “Elon Sux” in bold font with the x at the end, modeled after the logo for Elon’s God-awful rebranding of Twitter.

The video was also captioned with a reference to the email Musk sent to federal employees demanding they share five things they have accomplished over the past week. Elvira’s was: “Woke up, brushed my teeth, signed autographs, your mom, and Got a new paint job on my Tesla!”

She continued to drive around Portland in the aptly-named Elon Sux mobile, drawing applause, fist bumps, and blown kisses as she cruised by Tesla showrooms.

All this culminated in the Elon Sux mobile ultimately getting donated to the National Public Radio over the weekend in order to help financially support independent journalism and stand up to the Trump administration’s threat to defund public broadcasting.

In a video that has since gone viral, the Tesla is shown being towed while ACDC’s “Highway to Hell” plays in the background. As for Elvira, she’s shown in style, dressed in a blazer and a black cap that says “Make America Goth Again.”, Throughout the video, she is seen waving around a chainsaw in mockery of Elon’s appearance on stage at CPAC.

She then smiles and waves away the car before giving it the finger at the end, adding further insult to injury to Tesla’s rapidly declining stock.

Elvira truly is a national treasure.

Elon Musk speaks by video to supporters of Alternative for Germany leader Alice Weidel. Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The Microsoft founder said he was “not at all” concerned about influencing politics like Musk. However, Gates also told friends that he donated $50 million to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in October, The New York Times reported.

“You want to promote the right wing but say Nigel Farage is not right wing enough,” Gates told the British newspaper, referring to Musk’s beliefs. “I mean, this is insane s—. You are for the AfD [German far-right party Alternative for Germany].”

But he also offered muted praise for Musk, implying that the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and the social media site X might be taking on more than he can handle.

“We can all overreach,” Gates told The Sunday Times. “If someone is super-smart, and he is, they should think how they can help out. But this is populist stirring.”
Elon Musk appears onstage with President Donald Trump at a post-inauguration rally in Washington, D.C. The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Gates seemed cautiously optimistic that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency—the panel that Trump has tasked with slashing the federal budget—could reduce the national debt.

Gates said he expected Musk’s group to look at things like “pension, defense, and healthcare,” but hoped that he would spare programs that would deliver life-saving medication to HIV and AIDS patients in Africa.

After his electoral victory in November, Trump boasted that Gates was going to join other Silicon Valley titans for a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort before his inauguration. In the interview published Saturday, the Microsoft founder admitted to meeting with the president for a three-hour “engaging conversation” about some of the Gates Foundation’s interests, including breakthroughs in HIV treatment and polio eradication.

The recent stock market slump took a sizeable chunk out of the net worth of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who doubles as President Donald Trump’s chief of cost-cutting, as shares of Musk’s car company Tesla flounder.

Elon Musk at the Oval Office last month.

Key Takeaways

Musk’s net worth fell by $1.5 billion on the day to $353.2 billion by late afternoon Tuesday, according to Forbes’ real-time estimates.
Musk’s fortune is now down $110.8 billion from its end-of-day record of $464 billion set Dec. 17, when Tesla stock closed at a record $480 per share.
But Tesla stock has struggled since then, trading at below $280 on Tuesday, on the cusp of its lowest closing share price since Election Day.
The Tesla slump came as the S&P 500 fell as much as 1.7% to a 2025 low as Trump’s tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico went into effect.

Surprising Fact

To put the $111 billion Musk lost in perspective, the 13th-richest person on the planet, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, has an estimated net worth of $108.1 billion in total. Asia’s richest person, India’s Mukesh Ambani, has an $85.6 billion fortune.

Key Background

Tesla is particularly sensitive to tariffs as China is the second-largest market for its electric vehicles and the company, like other American automakers, relies on imports from Canada to produce its cars. Tariffs “will have an impact on our business and profitability” considering Tesla is “still very reliant on parts from across the world for all our businesses,” Tesla’s chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja warned in January.

Big Number

11%. That’s how much Tesla shares were up from Election Day to Tuesday, a fraction of the 91% rally they enjoyed through Dec. 17. Tesla’s initial post-election surge came as Wall Street bet Musk’s near $300 million donation toward Trump and GOP election efforts would translate into a big win for Tesla, which would especially benefit from lighter regulation for its self-driving initiatives. Musk is still $83.3 billion wealthier than he was on Election Day, benefiting in part from higher valuations for his private companies SpaceX and xAI.

The world’s wealthiest individuals, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, face an uphill battle to recover their losses.

The year 2025 began on a high note for billionaires, with their combined wealth increasing by an astonishing $10 billion per day in January.

However, just a month later, the financial euphoria has turned into a brutal downturn, with some of the world’s richest individuals experiencing staggering losses.

Notably, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg have collectively lost $138 billion in a matter of weeks, as mentioned in a report by Fortune.

Musk alone has seen his net worth decline by $90 billion, reflecting the broader market turbulence that has unsettled investors and corporate giants alike.

Billionaires Watch Their Fortunes Disappear

January was a period of immense financial growth for the world’s wealthiest individuals, with their collective net worth swelling by $314 billion—a figure roughly equivalent to the annual salary of 15 million workers.

However, by February, this upward trajectory had reversed dramatically.

Elon Musk’s net worth dropped from $433 billion to $349 billion, marking a significant decline.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, saw his fortune shrink from $243 billion to $232 billion.
Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, recorded a personal loss of $9 billion.

The downturn has been particularly severe for technology billionaires, whose fortunes are closely tied to stock market performance and emerging industry trends.

DeepSeek’s Rise Sparks Market Chaos

A major factor behind the rapid loss of wealth is the unexpected success of DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company that has disrupted the tech industry, as per theFortune magazine’s report.

DeepSeek’s R1 model, a low-cost AI innovation, has sent shockwaves through the market, particularly impacting major players like Meta and Nvidia.
As a result, Nvidia’s market value plunged by $600 billion, marking one of the biggest drops in U.S. stock market history.
Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, saw his personal fortune decline by $20 billion, falling to $103 billion.

DeepSeek’s rapid ascent has triggered a massive selloff in AI-related stocks, leading to a domino effect across Silicon Valley’s wealthiest executives.

Tech Moguls Bear the Brunt of the Selloff

The impact of DeepSeek’s market disruption has not been limited to just a few individuals. Many of the biggest names in the tech industry have suffered heavy losses:

Larry Ellison lost $27.6 billion, causing him to slip from the third-richest to the fifth-richest person in the world.
Michael Dell, founder of Dell Technologies, saw his fortune shrink by $12.4 billion.
Elon Musk lost $5.3 billion in the selloff, adding to his already steep decline.
Google co-founder Larry Page suffered a $6.3 billion loss, while Google investor Andreas von Bechtolsheim saw $5.4 billion wiped from his net worth.

With DeepSeek’s continued expansion and the AI industry undergoing rapid shifts, financial analysts predict that more volatility could be ahead for billionaires who have built their empires on technology stocks.

FAQs:

Does DeepSeek have a daily limit?

Perplexity AI has announced an increase in the daily query limit for DeepSeek R1 on its platform, raising the cap to 500.

Is DeepSeek better than ChatGPT?

DeepSeek may be preferable to ChatGPT for tasks requiring technical precision, such as coding and information retrieval. However, ChatGPT generally outperforms in creative writing and general conversation.

( Originally published on Mar 02, 2025 )

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