Tesla is now worth less than Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway investment fund after the electric car maker’s market cap fell by more than $600 billion, Markets Insider reports.

Tesla’s market capitalization fell below $600 billion at the U.S. open on Wednesday, less than half of the $1.2 trillion peak Musk’s company hit in late October last year.

On October 25, 2021, Tesla became the first automaker in history to cross the $1 trillion market cap mark.

This development represents an impressive turnaround considering that Tesla shares were trading at $30 at the start of 2020, reaching a high of $407 on October 31, 2021.

Tesla, struck by the wider problems of the engineering industry

Tesla shares have fallen 53% this year, creating new headaches for the South African billionaire and the company’s investors.

On the other hand, Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s investment fund, is now valued at $645 billion, regaining the fifth place in the S&P ranking of the most valuable companies listed on the American stock exchange.

Tesla has been hit hard by a massive outflow of investors into the technology sector amid record US inflation, rising benchmark interest rates and worries about an impending recession.

On Wednesday, Musk sold more than 19 million Tesla shares, most likely to finance the acquisition of Twitter.

But the contrasting evolutions of the two companies are also due to the different visions of the people who run them, with Buffett known for his careful analysis and an investment strategy that seeks long-term returns.

Musk says he’s not a Warren Buffett fan

Buffett also has a strategy for weathering periods of wild inflation by favoring owners of companies that people feel attached to.

“A brand is a great thing to own in times of inflation,” he said at Berkshire Hathaway’s 2015 shareholder meeting. For Buffett, that means brands like See’s Candy, an American candy maker and distributor he’s owned since 1972.

He also stated that the best business to own in times like this is one that doesn’t require constant reinvestment as it gets more expensive as the real value of the dollar falls.

Last October, when his fortune surpassed that of Buffett and Bill Gates combined, Musk teased the aging billionaire after being asked about it on Twitter.

“Maybe Buffett should invest in Tesla haha,” he wrote at the time on the social media platform he has since acquired.

It was just one of a series of jabs the South African billionaire took at Buffett in recent years, with Musk otherwise saying his work at Berkshire Hathaway was “boring.”

“I’m not exactly a big Buffett fan,” Musk insisted.