He made a lot of noise on his way to the top, but now Elon Musk has fallen from the top of global rich lists, with his fortune plunging to an estimated $US174 billion ($254.6 billion).
The title now belongs to Bernard Arnault and his family, who've been in the top spot before, with an estimated $US190.9 billion.
Who is Bernard Arnault?
The Frenchman is the co-founder, chairman and chief executive of luxury goods giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
The 73-year-old tennis-playing and art-collecting tycoon has also bounced around the top of the Forbes and Bloomberg billionaire lists since at least 2018.
You might not have heard of him because he appears to keep a relatively low profile.
He was born in the French city of Roubaix in 1949, studied engineering and took over his father's construction firm in 1971.
Almost a decade later, he shifted his focus to real estate.
Then, with the help of a partner of a French bank, he turned his eye to fashion, buying a bankrupt textile company named Boussac Saint-Frères, which happened to own fashion house Christian Dior.
He hit the big time in the late 1980s. That was when he helped to found LVMH — a merger between luxury brands Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy.
Mr Arnault worked with Moët Hennessy CEO Alain Chevalier and president of Louis Vuitton Henry Racamier to found the company in 1987.
Two years later, Mr Arnault turned on Mr Racamier over a difference of opinion, stripping him of his power and pushing from the company board.
His wealth has grown steadily in the decades since.
The way Mr Arnault operates has earned him nicknames like "the wolf in cashmere" and the "Machiavelli of finance".
How did he get so rich?
The names in "LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton" might sound familiar.
That's because they're some of the biggest luxury brands in the world, catering to wealthy people across the globe.
Along with the brands mentioned in the company name, the multinational corporation controls about 60 other subsidiaries.
A handful of these include Fendi, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Loewe, Loro Piana, Kenzo, Celine, Sephora, Princess Yachts, TAG Heuer, Bulgari and Tiffany & Co.
According to Bloomberg, the vast majority of Mr Arnault's fortune comes from his 97.5 per cent stake in Christian Dior, which, in turn, controls about 41 per cent of LVMH. The rest of his family holds an additional LVMH stake of about 6 per cent.
What got Arnault back to the top of the list?
Mr Arnault is back on top largely because Elon Musk has lost a phenomenal amount of money in the past year.
It is estimated Mr Musk's wealth has dropped by more than $US100 billion.
That means he's lost more than the gross domestic product of countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Iceland and Uruguay.
It follows a sharp drop in the share value of electric car manufacturer Tesla, of which he is the CEO and largest shareholder, with a reported 14 per cent stake in the company.
And that came amid Mr Musk's widely publicised $US44 billion takeover of social media platform Twitter.
Some have said the drama surrounding Mr Musk's Twitter takeover weighed on Tesla's share price.
Meanwhile, Mr Arnault's wealth has jumped in the past couple of years, with Forbes reporting his fortune increased by $US110 billion in 2020 and 2021.
LVMH also acquired American jeweller Tiffany & Co for $15.8 billion in early 2021. Forbes reported the purchase was believed to be the largest-ever luxury-brand acquisition.
Who else is at the top of the rich list?
Before getting into that, it's probably worth noting that rich lists are based on estimates using analysis of documented assets.
In other words, these billionaires aren't reporting their incomes to business magazines.
The wealth of billionaires can also vary wildly depending on stock market trends.
Here are the six men at the top of the Forbes billionaire list:
- Elon Musk, 51, didn't fall too far in the estimates of business magazine Forbes. He is in second place with his $US174 billion fortune
- Third on the list is the chair of Adani Group, Guatam Adani. The 60-year-old industrialist is reportedly worth $US133.3 billion
- Jeff Bezos, the 58-year-old founder of Amazon, is fourth with a reported fortune of $US114.8 billion
- Fifth is 92-year-old US investor Warren Buffett with an estimated net worth of $US107.4
- Microsoft founder Bill Gates still sits in sixth position despite stepping down from the board of the company in 2020. He held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world from 1995 to 2017, except for three years from 2010 to 2013.
