French luxury goods pioneer Bernard Arnault has cemented his position as the world's richest person, with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index listing him as wealthier than Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
It was found that Arnault currently holds a net worth of around $230 billion, having generated at least $22 billion in recent months. The 75-year-old's primary source of wealth derives from the luxury goods conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, which he founded and sits as the CEO of.
LVMH's 75 luxury brands are Louis Vuitton, Sephora, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Off-White, Tiffany and TAG Heuer.
Arnault is the only non-American to have made it to the most recent Bloomberg Billionaires Index list.
Current Bloomberg Billionaires Index top 10 list:
- Bernard Arnault - $228 billion - LVMH
- Jeff Bezos - $205 billion – Amazon
- Elon Musk – $183 billion - Tesla, Space X, X
- Mark Zuckerberg - $180 billion – Meta
- Bill Gates – $153 billion – Microsoft
- Steve Ballmer - $145 billion – Microsoft
- Larry Page - $140 billion - Google
- Larry Ellison - $139 billion - Oracle
- Warren Buffett - $139 billion – Berkshire Hathaway
- Sergey Brin - $133 billion - Google
Exactly 12 months ago, LVMH reached a market capitalisation of £500 billion, becoming the first European organisation ever to do so. Also, the group saw its stock price increase by five per cent over the past 12 months, thanks to net profit amounts of $16.5 billion and revenues of $94 billion.
Last year, LVMH offloaded 80% of its cruise retailer, Starboard Cruise Services, and multimedia travel and hospitality business, Onboard Media, to four private investors.
Behind Arnault, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is the world's second richest person, according to Bloomberg, with a net worth of $205 billion. The state of Amazon's share price contributed to Bezos's success, which has increased by over 20 per cent recently.
This comes despite the company's fierce competition in the e-commerce market from China's Temu and Shein.
Also, the 60-year-old raked in $8.5 billion throughout a fortnight in February as he sold 50 million of his company's shares.
The third richest person, according to Bloomberg, is Tesla, Space X and X (formerly Twitter) boss Elon Musk, who holds a net worth of $183 billion. Despite sitting relatively high in the third spot, it has been quite a disappointing period for Musk recently as Tesla's stock has fallen by more than 32 per cent in recent months, whilst China's BYD is providing stiff competition for the 52-year-old's automotive company.
Musk's fortune has fallen by more than $40 billion since the beginning of the year, with Tesla shares dropping by close to five per cent earlier this week; this was after the organisation reported its first annual sales drop since 2020.
Last year, Tesla delivered 387,000 vehicles to customers, considerably less than the 433,000 built.
Meta CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, sitting in fourth place with a total net worth of $180 billion, is the youngest person in the top 10 spots of the current Bloomberg Billionaires Index standings at 39. Meta's stock primarily contributes to his wealth, leaping by over 42 per cent in the early months of 2024.
