Entrepreneur/Tesla CEO Elon Musk and investor/Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett are two of the wealthiest human beings on Earth. Musk is the richest person on the planet with a net worth of more than $400 billion, and Buffett is currently ranked in the top 10 with a net worth hovering around $150 million, according to Forbes. Both men have weathered economic tumult and bad investments, and have still managed to amass more wealth than the rest of the planet.
While Buffett and Musk have both achieved monumental success, they have done so with radically different styles, attitudes and personalities. Musk has a tendency toward risk and bluster; Buffet has a more measured persona and bases his decisions upon care and research. In an era of such economic uncertainty as this one, why is Buffett better suited to weather the market upheavals of the day?
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Resilience Over Risk
Buffett’s personality and investment strategies are defined by patience, with an eye toward long-term growth via investing rather than short-term success. As an investor, Buffett favors industries and businesses that are resilient and promise long-term growth. Such companies — like Apple and Coca-Cola — are resilient enough to last through eras of financial chaos.
Musk, on the other hand, takes a high-risk approach to business strategies. For example, he insisted upon buying the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in 2022 for a staggering $44 billion in a loud and splashy deal…only for X’s net value to drop to less than $10 billion.
Musk himself tends to be a walking, talking risk-generator himself — his alignment with President Donald Trump’s controversial administration in 2025 caused Tesla’s stocks to steeply drop even before tariff-related chaos shook the markets. While Musk lives his business life as an innovator, game-changer and risk-taker, part of that inclination toward risk prevents keeps him from achieving Buffett’s resilience in troubled times.
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Diversity Over Limited Scope
Buffett’s investment strategy prefers a diversified portfolio, made up of such varied industries as consumer commodities, energy, insurance and tech products. In doing so, Buffett has curated a wide array of investments to blunt the impact of market upheavals — if one industry collapses or crashes, the others maintain the stability of Buffett’s wealth.
Musk’s high-risk style includes a far narrower investment focus: himself. Musk often doubles down and invests big in his own ventures, such SpaceX, Tesla and X. Investing in himself as a brand can be advantageous during successful periods, but when Musk is embroiled in controversy — such as in 2025 — it can lead to incredible losses.
Overall, while Musk is the wealthier of the two men, Buffett’s wealth is far less volatile than that of the world’s richest man. While so many others have lost billions throughout 2025, Buffet’s wealth continues to grow thanks to his measured and careful value investments.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 2 Reasons Why Warren Buffett Is Better at Weathering Market Upheaval Than Elon Musk
