Bernard Arnault has nabbed the title as the highest-net worth individual in the world, a feat that has unseated billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos from their prior spots and that was fueled by the performance of the French luxury goods giant he helms.
Arnault’s top-spot among the wealthiest in the world comes amid LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the company he has run for decades as CEO, seeing notable growth in recent years. His and his family’s personal fortune – which includes an almost 50% ownership stake in LVMH – was estimated by Forbes in early April to be at $211 billion on its yearly list of the world’s richest people for 2023, compared to $158 billion the prior year.
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As of Tuesday afternoon, Arnault’s net worth was estimated to total $235.7 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires tracker.
LVMH’s revenue in 2022 totaled 79.18 billion euros, marking a 23% increase from the 64.215 billion euros posted in the prior year. It reported generating 44.65 billion euros of revenue for 2020.
For group share of net profit, LVMH had a 17% rise year-over-year, going from 12.04 billion euros in 2021 to 14.04 billion in 2022. Its net profit in 2020 was 4.7 billion euros.
In its most recently reported quarter, the luxury goods giant had revenue of 21.03 billion euros, up from 18 billion in the 2022 first-quarter.
"Europe and Japan, which enjoyed strong growth momentum, benefited from robust demand from local customers and international travelers; the United States, a market which continues to grow, had a steady performance," the company said in its April quarterly earnings release. "Asia experienced a significant rebound following the lifting of health restrictions."
Over the past 12 months, the value of the LVMH’s stock has seen a nearly 41% jump, trading at roughly $193 on Tuesday afternoon. The company counts Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Tag Heuer, Bulgari and Tiffany & Co. among its numerous brands.
As Arnault’s position of the world’s richest lifted, Musk, the CEO of Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX and Bezos, the founder of e-commerce giant Amazon, also both saw their net worths decrease by tens of billions of dollars, causing their rankings on Forbes’ 2023 Billionaires List to slide.
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Musk and Bezos experienced a one-spot drop, with the former taking second-place, at $180 billion, and the latter getting third, at $114 billion, according to the outlet. On its real-time list, they sat in those same spots, though their net worths on Tuesday afternoon were $187.4 billion and $125.4 billion, respectively.
Forbes noted Musk’s activity on Twitter and Tesla investors reacting to his purchase of the social media platform in connection to his fortune plunging $39 billion year-over-year. Meanwhile, Amazon has seen its share price go down over 30% in a one-year span, something that contributed to Bezos’ change in ranking.
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Arnault and Musk have been trading off on holding the title in recent months, as Tesla shares have fluctuated. The Musk-run electric vehicle and clean energy company has quarterly earnings slated for release later Wednesday.
Amazon will put out its latest financial results April 27.
