The world’s richest man has surpassed Elon Musk to become Bernard Arnault, the billionaire chairman and CEO of LVMH, the worldwide luxury goods corporation that owns dozens of luxury brands including Sephora and Louis Vuitton.
According to the Forbes real-time billionaires list, Arnault and his family’s net worth increased by $23.6 billion on Friday, surpassing Musk’s $204.5 billion.
The announcement coincides with a 13% decline in Tesla’s stock price on Thursday, costing Musk about $18 billion in net worth.
Meanwhile, LVMH shares were soaring Friday, up over 13% as of 11 a.m. on the heels of news of strong sales.
The market cap of LVMH reached $388.8 billion on Friday, compared to Tesla’s $586.14 billion market cap.
KEY BACKGROUND
In 2021, LVMH acquired Tiffany & Co. for nearly $16 billion—considered the largest luxury brand acquisition ever. Arnault’s holding company Agache backs a venture capital firm called Aglaé Ventures, which Forbes reports invests in businesses like Netflix and ByteDance—the parent company of TikTok.
TANGENT
Arnault has five children who all work at LVMH. He recently appointed two of his sons to the LVMH board alongside two other children who were already on the board in a move to secure long-term family control.
