How Elon Musk lost his No 1 spot on the world’s wealthiest list... for a bit

Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost the Number One spot on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List on Wednesday… only briefly.

The drop in Musk’s net worth was because of Tesla shares going down and a $44 billion bet on Twitter, according to Forbes which tracks the wealth of the world’s billionaires in real-time.

Who became No 1?

The 51-year-old was second. Then who came first? It was Bernard Arnault & family, who own the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton group of luxury brands.

Arnault took the top spot in the Forbes list with a net worth of $185.3 billion for some time. However, he fell to the second position again. Elon Musk, who has regained the number one spot, has a personal wealth of $185.7 billion.

Notably, the new Twitter owner has held the top spot on the Forbes list since September 2021. He took over the title from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The third position is held by Indian businessman Gautam Adani, who has a net worth of $135.4 billion.

Also read: Meet the Indians on Forbes list of most powerful women of 2022

Who is Bernard Arnault?

French entrepreneur Bernard Arnault is currently the chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, one of the world’s foremost luxury brands. The firm owns nearly 70 companies and cosmetic brands such as Dom Perignon (wines), Sephora, Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Marc Jacobs (clothing), and Fenty Beauty by Rihanna (make-up).

Quick Reads

View All

China rolls out $72 bn loan backstop, but can it revive its flagging private sector?

India’s green leap: Electrifies faster than China did — and burns fewer fossil fuels per capita

The 73-year-old was raised in France’s Roubaix by an industrial family. He started his professional career as an engineer and went on to become chairman in 1978. He got on board to reorganise the Financière Agache holding company in 1984.

The LVMH website suggests that Arnault returned the group to profitability as he started a strategy of growth. In the process, he gave Christian Dior fresh life as the foundation of the new company.

Arnault acquired the majority of the shares of Paris-based fashion empire LVMH Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton in 1989 and he has been serving as the chairman and CEO of the company ever since. Four of his children are working in the different corners of the LVMP empire: Frédéric, Delphine, Antoine and Alexandre.

In January last year, LVMH acquired American jeweller Tiffany & Co for $15.8 billion, which is believed to be the biggest luxury brand acquisition ever.

Thus, Arnault rightly says, “I see myself as an ambassador of French heritage and French culture. What we create is emblematic. It’s linked to Versailles, to Marie Antoinette.”

How Forbes tracks wealth?

Every year, Forbes Magazine publishes a list of the world’s wealthiest individuals. The real-time data is accessible all year long and its ranking methodology records the daily ups and downs of the world’s wealthiest people.

When respective stock markets open, the value of each individual’s public holdings is updated every five minutes. The rankings are likely to change every day because people whose fortunes are heavily reliant on private enterprises will have their net worths updated once daily, according to media reports.

A few months ago, Arnault was replaced by Adani at the number two spot on the same list.

How rich is Musk?

Right now, Musk continues to be the wealthiest of all. A majority of his wealth is invested in an automobile company, Tesla, which is having trouble competing in China, which is touted to be its biggest market outside of the United States.

In November this year, the businessman bought Twitter for $44 billion. The social media company has lost nearly 60 per cent of its workers since he took charge. Many investors have also raised concerns about whether Musk is splitting his attention too thinly between all of his high-profile projects.

Additionally, Musk also owns rocket companies named SpaceX and Neuralink, which is a start-up that develops mega bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.