Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of global luxury goods company LVMH, has surpassed Tesla and Twitter CEO, Elon Musk to become the richest person in the world.
Elon Musk saw a substantial decline in his net worth losing over $18 billion primarily due to a steep drop in Tesla’s stock value last week. The nosedive erased a staggering $73 billion off the company’s market value.
Arnault and his family’s net worth grew to $207.8 billion after a $23.6 billion increase, passing Musk’s $204.5 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire list.
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The market cap of LVMH reached $388.8 billion, compared to Tesla’s $586.14 billion market cap.
The 74-year-old Bernard Arnault first surpassed Musk in December 2022.
Last December, Tesla and SpaceX CEO returned as the world’s richest man, recapturing the title from French luxury tycoon Arnault.
With a combined net worth of about $426 billion at the time, Musk and Arnault had lunch in Paris in June last year. They met at Cheval Blanc, a luxury hotel chain owned by Arnault’s LVM.
Tesla shares plunged more than 11 per cent last Friday, wiping $73 billion off the company’s market value hours after it warned of slowing growth in electric car sales and an existential threat from Chinese rivals.
In an earnings presentation, the world’s most valuable automaker said its sales growth this year “may be notably lower” than last as it continued developing the “next-generation” vehicle, likely a lower-priced model.
