Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is now crowned as the world's richest man-- overtaking electric car Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The major shift in the Forbes Magazine list of the world's richest person's order came after the 74-year-old founder's company registered a 10 per cent rise in fourth-quarter sales. The growth is pushed by resilient demand post the coronavirus pandemic, especially in the fourth-quarter sales.
According to Forbes, Bernard Arnault and his family currently hold a personal fortune of $207.6 billion. While Musk, whose critical statement about the sale decline of his own company, drove him from the list of toppers to the second one, has a net worth of 204.7 billion, as per Forbes. Notably, on Thursday, the American electric automobile company shares tumbled over 12% after Musk warned sales growth would slow this year. This triggered a major decline in Tesla's stock. In fact, the stock went down its sharpest intraday percentage loss in more than a year.
Top 10 richest person in the world- Forbes real-time billionaires list
- Bernard Arnault & Family ($207.6 billion)
- Elon Musk ($204.7 billion)
- Jeff Bezos ($181.3 billion)
- Larry Ellison ($142.2 billion)
- Mark Zuckerberg (139.1 billion)
- Warren Buffett ($127.2 billion)
- Larry Page ($127.1 billion)
- Bill Gates ($122.9 billion)
- Sergey Brin ($121.7 billion)
- Steve Ballmer (118.8 billion).
Who is Bernard Arnault
The French businessman has served as CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest luxury group, since becoming the majority shareholder in 1989. He is also president of the board for Groupe Arnault SE, which is his family’s holding company and primarily an investment firm.
Arnault, who owns the world's biggest luxury group, also owns Dior and Tiffany. Besides the leather industry, Arnault owns 74 perfumes, cosmetics, watches, and jewellery. He also owns wines and spirits companies which registered a decline in growth this year.
Earlier last week, in an annual assessment of global inequalities published earlier this week, Oxfam International said the first trillionaire could emerge within the next decade — as the anti-poverty organisation pointed to the growing wealth gap that skyrocketed globally during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the findings, Oxfam highlighted how the personal fortunes of the world’s five richest people — Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault and his family of luxury company LVMH, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and investment guru Warren Buffett — have more than doubled since 2020.
