Guess who is (again) the richest person in the world…

Overtaken at the end of last year by Bernard Arnault, here he is back at the top. Elon Musk is once again the richest man on earth.

Due to a fall in the value of LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton), the luxury behemoth owned by Bernard Arnault, Elon Musk has just regained his place, becoming, once again, the richest person in the world. The fortune of the boss of Tesla and SpaceX is now estimated at 195 billion dollars (182 billion euros), against 187 billion for his wealthy French counterpart.

Elon Musk reclaims his throne

Even if these amounts and this ranking remain symbolic, it is certain that the very idea of ​​being the richest man on the planet again will do Elon Musk’s ego good. It is the American group specialized Bloomberg who unveiled the brand new ranking this Friday.

Elon Musk recovered a place lost in December 2022, stolen by a Bernard Arnault who arrived at the top of the hierarchy, thanks to the increased demand for luxury goods, which had allowed LVMH to soar on the stock market. In April, the wealth of the northerner even exceeded 200 billion dollars.

But since then, the value of LVMH has plunged more than 10%, with analysts fearing the bursting of the luxury bubble. And so here is the fortune of Bernard Arnault fallen to 187 billion dollars “only”.

Americans out in force

While Bernard Arnault’s fortune has increased “only” by $25 billion since the start of the year, that of Elon Musk has jumped by $58 billion. Even though the social network Twitter has lost two-thirds of its value since its takeover last fall, the truth is elsewhere for Musk, driven by the pharaonic increase in Tesla shares (+88% in 2023).

Behind, Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon and himself the richest ex-man on the planet, completes the podium. His fortune is now estimated at $144 billion. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, with $126 billion; and that of Oracle, Larry Ellison, with 118 billion dollars complete the ranking.

Here are some final lessons to be learned from this ranking:

• The first 11 are men. First woman, L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, ranks 12^ewith a fortune of 86 billion dollars.
• The first 10 are all, with the exception of Bernard Arnault, Americans. Elon Musk also has South African and Canadian citizenship.
• The other French people rank 25^e (Alain Wertheimer), 26^e (Gerard Wertheimer), 31^e (Francois Pinault) and 74^e (Rodolphe Saadé and his family).

Source : Bloomberg