Elon Musk He stopped being the richest person on the planet. But only for a moment. Last week, Forbes He reported that Bernard Arnault, president and CEO of the luxury brands company LVMH, had surpassed him once again, after a movement in the shares of the companies of both billionaires. But this Monday, the leader of Tesla and SpaceX returned to the top of the list.
According to the latest update of Forbeswhich tracks the list of billionaires in real time, the net worth of Elon Musk is worth $208.8 billion. While Arnault’s is now just below: it adds up to $208.5 billion dollars. However, the story changes practically by the minute, so it is likely that we will see more exchanges of positions between the two tycoons.
Forbes reported last Friday that Elon Musk had lost the top spot for the first time since last June. In his report, he highlighted two key moves. On the one hand, LVMH shares increased more than 13% during Friday morning, after they reported that they registered a sales record in 2023. The French group said on Thursday that its sales and profits grew by 9% and 8%, respectively, compared to 2022.
The opposite is the case with Tesla, led by Elon Musk. The automaker’s shares fell about 13% last Thursday. This caused the businessman of South African origin, also owner of Twitter, to lose more than $18 billion in net worth.
The drop in Tesla shares occurred after Elon Musk told investors that increasing production of his new vehicle would be a “challenge.” He explained that “an enormous amount of revolutionary new manufacturing technology” would be needed. And that any boost to the company’s growth would take time.
Elon Musk also warned about the increasing impact of Chinese competition on the market. “Frankly, I think that if trade barriers are not established, they will practically demolish most companies in the world,” he noted at the meeting on the financial close of the fourth quarter of 2023.
Bernard Arnault’s emporium that disputes first place with Elon Musk
Tesla gained 3.1% this Monday, after the Wall Street close. This would explain why Elon Musk returned to first place. It’s a kind of constant “up and down”. The Frenchman, for example, was the richest person in the world for much of 2023. But the Tesla CEO surpassed him in June, when his wealth surged after a spike in the company’s shares.
At the end of last year, in count Forbes for all of 2023, Arnault once again appeared as the billionaire with the most money. LMVH has been growing at an accelerated pace since 2021, when it bought the American jewelry company Tiffany & Co. It is believed to be the largest acquisition of a luxury brand ever made: It cost about 15.8 billion dollars.
LMVH brings together 74 other fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton and Sephora. Furthermore, Agache, the holding company de Arnault, backs the venture capital firm Aglaé Ventures, which has investments in businesses such as Netflix and TikTok. In 2022, the billionaire granted his five children an equal share in the holding company.
The top 5 billionaires led by Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault are completed by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and the space company Blue Origin; Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle; and Mark Zuckerberg, leader of Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp). On the list, almost all of them are men. The woman who holds the highest position is Françoise Bettencourt: The owner of L’Oréal is on step 14, with an estimated net worth of $97.8 billion.