Bernard Arnault topples Musk as richest person on planet

Elon Musk, once worth as much as $340 billion, has been displaced as the world’s richest person by Bernard Arnault,73, the chief executive of luxury brand Louis Vuitton’s parent company LVMH.

Paris-based LVMH’s designer apparel, fine wines and retail business have benefited after pent-up demand triggered huge spending Covid-linked shopping and travel restrictions were lifted in most countries. Arnault’s brands cater to the rich segment — from Christian Dior and Fendi to jewelers Bulgari and Tiffany & Co., and champagne house Moet & Chandon.

Arnault has always figures at upper end of wealth rankings, but his fortune never grew at the frenetic pace of US tech billionaires. Now his business empire is still gaining while Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Alphabet Inc.’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin see their wealth being drastically eroded.

Musk’s fortune has crashed by more than $100 billion since January to $163.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. As of 11:50 a.m. in New York, that’s less than the $170.6 billion net worth of Arnault.

shocked the world in April this year with his offer to take Twitter private for $44 billion.

But his agreement coincided with the Federal Reserve and other central banks going in for drastic monetary tightening which slashed the valuations of high-flying companies like Musk’s Tesla Inc. The electric carmaker’s share price has crashed by more than 50% this year.

Musk tried for months to withdraw from the Twitter deal, but could not do so. He sold more than $15 billion in Tesla shares to raise enough cash to fund the purchase.