Bernard Arnault Overtakes Elon Musk as World’s Richest Man

Bernard Arnault Overtakes Elon Musk as World’s Richest Man

Bernard Arnault has displaced Elon Musk, Twitter and Tesla CEO as the World’s richest man. Arnault is the CEO of French luxury brand LVMH, maker of Louis Vuitton luxury goods and Hennessy cognac. Musk dropped to the second spot on Forbes’ list of “Real-Time Billionaires,” released on Wednesday putting him behind Arnault. Forbes now pins Musk’s wealth at $183.6 billion, slightly below Arnault’s wealth estimated at $186.2 billion.

Forbes noted on Wednesday that Arnault’s ascent is because LVMH’s stock is mostly flat this year, while Musk has experienced a “dramatic collapse of Tesla’s share price,” which is down 56% in 2022. Musk’s strategy of cavorting with right-wing influencers on Twitter may also be impacting Tesla shares as well. Musk’s wealth peaked in November 2021, when he was worth $320 billion, Forbes said.

Mr Musk held the position as the world richest man between 2020 and 2021 after he displaced Bill Gates.

Forbes said on Wednesday that Mr Musk has faced a “dramatic collapse of Tesla’s share price,” which is down 56% in 2022, but Arnault has risen due to LVMH’s shares being largely flat this year.

Mr Musk’s Twitter presence and his interactions with right-wing influencers may be having an effect on Tesla stock prices. According to Forbes, Musk’s wealth peaked in November 2021, when he was valued at $320 billion.

He recently sold off about $4 billion of Tesla stock, while raising funds to complete a $44 billion deal on Twitter acquisition.

Analysts say that estimating Mr Musk’s overall wealth is challenging because a large portion of his wealth is invested in his private businesses, such as the internet and rocket company SpaceX,the tunnelling company The Boring Company, and the company Neuralink, which seeks to implant computer chips in people’s brains.

Despite the losses, Mr Musk is still far ahead of second-and third-placed billionaires Jeff Bezos and Gautam Adani of India, each of whom is worth an estimated $135 billion.

 Musk recently sold off about $4 billion of Tesla stock to fund his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which is embroiled with issues including layoffs and skittish advertisers wary of the platform’s direction. Musk had sold blocks of Tesla shares worth a total of $15.4 billion earlier this year when his deal to buy Twitter was announced.

Estimating Musk’s wealth in general is a difficult task, however, as much of his money is tied up in his private companies, including rocket and internet firm SpaceX, tunneling outfit The Boring Company, and Neuralink, which wants to put computer chips in people’s brains.

Despite the losses, Musk is well ahead of third-place Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who is worth $135 billion and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose wealth is estimated at $113.1 billion.

On Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Musk is solidly in first place with a net worth of $171 billion. Arnault sits in second with a $166 billion net worth. However, Musk has lost about $100 billion this year, according to Bloomberg’s calculations. That list updates daily after the market closes.

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