Elon Musk: Twitter boss reclaims title of world’s richest person
In order to restore his position as the richest person in the world, Elon Musk dethroned Bernard Arnault, the head of luxury goods conglomerate LMVH.
Due to an increase in the value of his electric car company Tesla, his net worth has increased by $55.3 billion (£44.44 billion) since January, reaching $192 billion (£153.24 billion).
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Mr. Arnault’s fortune has decreased by $24.5 billion (£19.55 billion) to $187 billion (£149 billion).
Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos come in third and fourth, respectively, after him.
When shares in LMVH increased as luxury goods demand increased in December, Mr. Arnault, 74, had surpassed Mr. Musk, 51, on the list of the wealthy.
Amid worries that his takeover of the social media site Twitter was impairing his leadership, shares in Tesla, the business from which Mr. Musk gets the majority of his fortune, fell precipitously at the same time.
However, since the beginning of the year, Tesla shares have increased by about 92% as market jitters have subsided and Mr. Musk has announced the appointment of a new CEO for Twitter.
Excitement has also been generated by his travel to China this week to pitch Tesla, which is profiting from the recent surge in interest in AI.
LMVH, which owns businesses like Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, has reversed course.
Its shares have dropped significantly and are down 16% year to date after reaching a record high in April.
The company is Europe’s most valuable company, and Mr. Arnault, who co-founded the luxury goods juggernaut in 1987, holds a controlling ownership in it.
As part of a reorganization at LMVH, the Frenchman named his daughter Delphine Arnault, 47, as head of his fashion business Dior in January.
The group’s brands employ all five of Mr. Arnault’s children in management roles.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is ranked third richest in the world by Bloomberg, with a net worth of $37.3 billion. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has a net worth of $16.2 billion.